Best Esport Games
While competitive gaming has been popular for years, the last decade has been witness to accelerated development in Esports. Today, Esports is a multi-billion dollar industry with players and teams across the world competing to win championship titles in the best Esport games. You can also play in small events if you are just getting started.
The Intel World Open has even managed to get backing from the Olympics committee to have Rocket League and Street Fighter V for the Tokyo Olympics! They’re investing $500,000 in setting up the event, so you can imagine what the prize pool will be like.
As Esports gains momentum across the globe, viewers like us get access to live streams of the top Esports tournaments across the globe. But you don’t have to compete in the top tournaments to enjoy what Esports have to offer. They’re easily accessible, a great way to unwind, easy to learn, and can improve your critical thinking. So if you’re planning on picking up an Esport in the near future, here are some of the best Esport games out there.
League of Legends: Best Esport Game for Teams
League of Legends (LoL) is a type of MOBA game. MOBA refers to Massive Online Battle Arena and it connects teams of players from across the world to play and compete against each other.
League of Legends happens to be one of the dominant Esports in the industry with a Grand Prize pool of $73.5 million across 2400 individual events. The most recent cash prize for first place in the world championships even went up to $8 million!
LoL also happens to have a total of around 8 million active registered users with 4 million viewers tuning in to watch ‘Worlds’, which currently happens to be the biggest LoL tournament.
Fortnite: A Perfect Esport Game for Individuals
In just 3 years since its launch, Fortnite has stormed the Esports industry, with over $80 million being given out in rewards in just the last two years.
Fortnite is a classic player-vs.-player type game where you can play single, in duos, or a squad of up to three or four players. You start off as a weaponless character who is airdropped onto a battlefield that accommodates up to 100 players at the same time. It’s a ton of fun and can be learned quite easily.
However, mastering the game can take a while, and with 250 million registered users and the third highest prize pool in the Esports industry, Fortnite is teeming with pros looking to grab the top spot.
Call of Duty: Best Esport Game for Consoles
Call of Duty is one game that has withstood the test of time, and the test of consoles, being played across various platforms. It’s currently perhaps the only console Esports dominating the industry.
The cool part about this game is that the title changes every year, along with the structure and mechanics of the game. This means that even pro players must learn a whole new game every year, which keeps things interesting and exciting.
The Call of Duty industry has crossed $1 billion in earnings and it’s hard to even gauge the player count as it’s played across different platforms. However, you can expect it to be in the millions.
CS:GO: Highest Tournament Esport Games Prize Money
Since the mid 2000s Counter Strike: Global Offensive has enjoyed unmatched popularity, with sports heroes like Usain Bolt and Neymar being hooked to the game.
Almost two decades ago, ever since the World Cyber Games existed, CS:GO has been a phenomenon in Esports garnering millions of followers and resulting in the creation of legendary teams.
CS:GO is similar to Fortnite, with a first-person shooter perspective. And just like Fortnite, CS:GO can be played solo or in teams and you’ll find championship tournaments in both fields.
And while CS:GO has been in the Esports scene for years already, the IEM Katowice Major, one of its biggest tournaments, has over one million viewers tuning in and a prize pool of almost $17 million! This cements CS:GO’s position as the Eports with the highest prize pool.
PUBG: First Popular Esport Game on Mobile
With the recent spike in popularity of games like CS:GO and Fortnite, PUBG (Player Unknown Battlegrounds) has seen a dip in viewership and users. This ‘dip’ however barely causes a dent, and PUBG still has almost 200 million registered users, with over 30 million users tuning in to play everyday!
PUBG quickly grew as it was the first popular Esports played on the mobile. Of course, now there’s both mobile and PC versions so viewers can follow two different tournaments played by different teams from across the world.
DOTA 2: Highest Esport Games Prize Pool
DOTA 2, which is run on Steam, is the only other MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) that is in competition with LoL. The International, which is the biggest DOTA championship in the world, garners over 2 million viewers with almost 11 million players every month.
LoL outclasses DOTA in both viewership and users, but the prize pool in DOTA 2 is truly incredible, thanks to the method they use to gather funds. Players can buy items and customisations on Steam that they can add to their characters in the game. 25% of these purchases go to the prize pool at The International. This 25% happens to be almost $35 million which adds on to the overall prize pool of over $200 million awarded throughout all levels of the tournament.
With a cash prize that big, you can bet that the competition is fierce. And while learning DOTA 2 can take a while, this game is an epic way to really engage your brain and make quick, life-threatening decisions in tandem with your team.
DOTA 2 also has a vast pool of ‘heroes’ or characters you can choose from, each with their own unique abilities that progress as they level up. It’s an exciting, adrenaline-filled game, and whether you plan to compete or not, it’s worth giving it a shot.
Try Out the Best Esport Games!
While becoming a professional Esports player may not be on your bucket list, learning to play one of these games will be a fun, exciting, and challenging process. And the best part is that you can drag your friends into it and bond with them over a match. So figure out what kind of game you like, whether it’s the simple first-person shooters or the complicated MOBAs, and download the best esport games!