The Esports World Cup filled the summer with non-stop esports action, featuring 21 titles, thousands of competitors, and placing $70 million in prize money on the line.
The viewership has reportedly been quite impressive, adding to the Esports World Cup Foundation’s claim that it’s the biggest esports event of the year. With so many top teams competing in Saudi Arabia in tournaments which in turn qualify them for other major events throughout the year, the Esports World Cup was also popular with bettors.
Read on for a breakdown of the betting activity during some of the largest tournaments which took place across weeks of intense competition from 7 July to 24 August.
Counter-Strike 2
Counter-Strike 2 took place near the end of Esports World Cup, closing out the seven weeks of competitive action. This year, EWC’s CS2 tourney had a peak viewership of 739,992 viewers (compared to 756,000 last year). The drop in viewership could have been due to some of the most popular teams facing elimination early on (including FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere), but there were still a number of highlights.
The matches with the most betting activity on the Kambi network were:
- MOUZ vs. Team Falcons
- Team Falcons vs. Aurora Gaming
- Team Vitality vs. The Mongolz
It’s no surprise to see Team Falcons involved in the two most popular matches with bettors; they were receiving a great deal of promotion and attention at the Esports World Cup, to the extent that some attendees levelled accusations of favouritism towards them during the Counter-Strike 2 tournament. Regardless of the reasons, the crowd was very passionate during the last few matches.
Interestingly enough, however, Team Falcons were not in the Grand Finals. That took place between Team Aurora Gaming and The Mongolz, a fixture which surprisingly failed to place in the top three. For their part, Team Falcons placed third, winning a playoff match against Team Vitality.
League of Legends
League of Legends was one of the biggest tournaments during the Esports World Cup, boasting a peak viewership of 1.2 million fans. However, the average viewership dipped to 472,518 compared to 566,478 last year. That being said, it’s now the third-most-watched League of Legends event of 2025 so far – for context, the Mid-Season Invitational had a peak viewership of 3.4 million.
Here are matches with the most betting activity:
- Gen.G vs. Anyone’s Legend
- Gen.G vs. G2 Esports
- Bilibili Gaming vs. G2 Esports
The top spot makes a lot of sense, since Gen.G versus Anyone’s Legend was the Grand Finals match with a $600K grand prize. It was an incredible match with both teams on their A-game. However, Gen.G has been on a roll all year and it’s not much of a surprise that the South Korean squad also took Esports World Cup’s trophy.
What is surprising, on the other hand, is the fact that T1 did not appear in any of the top three matches. Led by the Unkillable Demon King Faker, T1 is the most popular esports team in the world. T1 placed in third at Esports World Cup and have been performing quite well throughout the season, although not dominating in quite the same manner they have in previous years.
Dota 2
This year Dota 2 dropped the Riyadh Masters name during the Esports World Cup. It was quite a successful tournament for the iconic MOBA, reaching a new viewership peak of 429,568 fans. This has made it the most-watched Dota 2 event all year so far.
The matchups which generated the most betting activity were:
- Team Spirit vs. Team Falcons
- BB Team vs. Tundra Esports
- Team Liquid vs. Team Falcons
The top match from the above was the Grand Finals, which saw Team Spirit get a 3-0 sweep over Team Falcons on its home turf. Team Liquid versus Team Falcons was the Quarterfinals, which saw Liquid fall despite winning the recent major event ‘The International’. There were not many upsets throughout the tournament, with Team Spirit carrying their momentum all the way through and not losing a single round on their route the the playoffs.
