The biggest esports games every player should know

Did you know that the global audience for esports games is expected to reach 250 million people?

The growth of esports has been exceptional, with new games being released every year. However, some games dominate the landscape and are more famous than others.

When we talk about the biggest esports games, they can mean different things to different people. Some games are more popular globally while others are regional hits. Some have more players while others organize bigger tournaments with big cash prizes.

In this post, we have sorted the biggest esports games by the amount of bonus money they offered for the tournaments. All information related to this is collected from the eSports earnings website . So, let’s start with our list of the biggest esports games.

Biggest esports games:

1. Dota 2

Year of release – 2013

Total prize money awarded – $224.7 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – International

Best Players – Johan Sundstein, Jesse Vaineca, Anathan Pham

Dota 2 is a popular multiplayer battle arena sports game developed by Valve Corporation. It’s a sequel to Defending the Ancients: All-Stars. It is most popular in North America and Europe.

The same is usually played in teams of five, each defending his own territory on the map. One team wins by destroying a structure called “The Ancient” inside the other team’s base.

2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Year of release – 2012

Total prize money awarded – $96.5 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – World Esports Games (WESG), ELEAGUE

Best Players – Andreas Hogsleth, Peter Rasmussen, Nikolai Redz

This is another popular esports game developed by Valve Corporation, in collaboration with Hidden Path Entertainment. It is a first person shooter game and the fourth in the Counter-Strike series.

This game is mainly played between two teams – Terrorists and Counter Terrorists. Terrorists take hostages and plant a bomb. The counter-terrorists have to rescue the hostages and defuse the bomb.

3. Fortnite

Release year – 2017

Total prize money awarded – $89.1 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – Fortnite World Cup, Fortnite Fall Skirmish Series, Fortnite Summer Skirmish Series

Best Players – Kyle Gersdorf, Harrison Chang, David Wang

Fortnite is a popular multiplayer online game developed by Epic Games. It has three different game modes but it is still considered as one game. Here are the details of each game mode:

SAVE THE WORLD – Includes up to 4 players battling zombie-like creatures to defend themselves and other survivors.

Battle Royale – This is a player versus player type game where up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing. It can also be played in teams.

Creative – This is a sandbox where players have creative control over the game world.

4. League of Legends

Year of release – 2009

Total prize money awarded – $75.5 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – LoL World Championship

Best players – Sang Hyuk Lee, Ho Seung Lee, Jun Sik Bae

This is a real-time multiplayer strategy action game developed by Riot Games. It is very popular in Asia.

It is played by 2 teams, 3 or 5 players each and it is somewhat similar to Dota 2 in the gameplay. Similar to Dota 2, here the team wins by destroying a structure called “Nexus” inside the other team’s base.

5. StarCraft II

Year of release – 2010

Total prize money awarded – $33.0 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – WCS World Finals, World Esports Games (WESG)

Top Players – Song Cho Cho, Juna Sutala, Byung Ryul Lee

It is a real-time strategy game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the sequel to the original Starcraft game.

The game takes place in a science fiction scenario where there are three species – Terrans, Zerg and Protoss. It is divided into 3 parts with the base game Wings of Liberty and two expansion packs. The first part focuses on Terrans (humans), while the other two parts revolve around Zerg and Protoss.

6- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)

Release year – 2017

Total prize money awarded – $22.2 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – PUBG World Championship, PUBG Nations Cup

Best Players – Jeong Young-bak, Jeong Wan-Gu, Seong Hun Cha

This is a Battle Royale game developed by UBG Corporation. In this game, up to 100 players compete against each other to be the last player standing. It can be played in teams as well.

7. Watching

Year of release – 2016

Total prize money awarded – $21.7 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – Watch League

Top players – Jae Hee Hong, Jun Young Park, Ji Hyuk Kim

This is a first-person shooter game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and played in teams of six. The goal is to either secure control points on the map or move a payload from one point to another, within a specified period of time. The game is very popular in Asia but is played all over the world.

8. Hearthstone

Year of release – 2014

Total prize money awarded – $21.1 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – Hearthstone World Championships, GrandMasters, Masters Tour

Afzal Laaboun – Thijs Molendijk and Wei Lin Chen and Pavel Beltiukov

It is a free digital card game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is played as a single between two players and is a turn based game. Each player gets a deck of 30 cards and can choose a hero with a unique ability. There are many modes of play available.

9. Heroes of the Storm

Year of release – 2015

Total prize money awarded – $18.1 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – World Storm Champions Tournament

Top players – Won Ho Jeong, Jung Hyeong Lee, Jae Won Lee

It is a multiplayer game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The game features different players and battle arenas from other popular Blizzard games like Warcraft and Overwatch. Due to its broader gameplay, it is called a “brawler hero” game, rather than a “multiplayer online battle arena” or a “real-time action strategy” game.

10. Arena of Courage

Year of release – 2015

Total prize money awarded – $14.5 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – Honoring the Kings World Cup Champion, the King Pro League

Top Players – Game Player Names Cat, NuoYan and Alan (original names not available)

It is a multiplayer online battle arena game developed by TiMi Studios, but published by the most famous game group Tencent Games. The game is played in teams of five and has multiple modes.

11. Counter Strike

Year of release – 2000

Total prize money awarded – $13.4 million

Noteworthy tournaments – no recent tournaments

Top Players – Patrick Lindbergh, Patrick Sattermon, Harley Orwall

Popularly known as Counter-Strike 1.6 or Half-Life: Counter-Strike, this was the predecessor to the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Developed by Valve Corporation.

Most CS 1.6 players have now moved to the latest CS: GO series. However, it is still one of the largest esports games in terms of prize money awarded to tournaments and popularity. The game was especially popular in Europe.

12. Rainbow Six Siege

Year of release – 2015

Total prize money awarded – $12.1 million

Noteworthy tournaments – Six Invitational, Six Specialty

Best Players – Niklas Moritzan, Fabian Halsten, Troy Jaroslavsky

It is a tactical shooting game developed by Ubisoft. It has different modes that include missions like dismantling a bomb or rescuing a hostage. Each player can be an attacker or a defender in any of these scenarios or situations.

13. Missile Periodic

Year of release – 2016

Total prize money awarded – $8.8 million

Noteworthy Tournaments – Rocket League Championship Series

Best Players – Courant Alexander, Pierre Silver, Gus van Mors

This is a unique arcade style soccer game developed by Psyonix. They are literally cars that play football or as they are popularly called “football, but with cars”.

This game is played in teams of up to eight players. The objective of this game is to score a goal and earn points just like in soccer.

14. Named

Year of release – 2014

Total prize money awarded – $8.6 million

Noteworthy Championships – World Whack Championship

Best Players – John Salter, Rosario Velardi, Andrew Woodward

It is a free to play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game developed by Hi-Rez Studios. The game contains mythical characters such as gods and goddesses from different myths. You can choose a character to participate in a team based combat game. It has multiple game modes and lots of characters to choose from.

15. Starcraft: The Brood War

Year of release – 1998

Total prize money awarded – $8.2 million

Noteworthy tournaments – no recent tournaments

Top Players – Young Ho Lee, Jae Dong Lee, Jae Eun Lee

This is an expansion pack of the original StarCraft game that preceded StarCraft II. Developed by Saffire Corporation and Blizzard Entertainment. This game is played all over the world but is especially popular in South Korea.

Just like StarCraft II, it is also about all three species – Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg. The goal is to form a base, build an army and conquer opponents.

Conclusion

These are some of the biggest esports games you can play. If you are an esports fanatic and not a gamer, you can follow esports influencers and players and see how they play.