Esports has been catching up with traditional sports when it comes to hype, massive events, and fandoms. While there’s a long way to go, there’s no denying that esports has continued to grow — some games more than others.
The most popular esports tend to be MOBA, battle royale, and tactical shooter genres. Their popularity is mainly due to their fast time to kill, high skill cap, and dynamic gameplay. Based on esports betting activity on the Kambi network in 2024, these are the most popular esports.
1. Counter-Strike 2, Valve Corporation
% of Esports Betting Turnover: 57%
IEM Katowice 2024: 24,575,159 million hours watched
PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: 1.85m peak viewers
Counter-Strike 2, also known as CS2, is a tactical shooter developed by Valve Corporation. It is a team-based game in which players aim to kill the opposing team and defuse and plant bombs. The game has immense popularity and is one of the biggest esports to date.
Read more about why some games turn into esports
Discover Abios Coverage for CS2 here
League of Legends, Riot Games
% of Esports Betting Turnover: 26%
League of Legends Worlds 2024: 19,090,8511 million hours watched and 6.9 million peak viewers
Mid-Season Invitational 2024: 2.8 million peak viewers
League of Legends, commonly referred to as LoL, is a MOBA developed by Riot Games. The game is based on 5v5 teams competing in an arena to gather strength to kill the opposing team’s base, the Nexus. The game has been around since 2009 and has one of the biggest player bases in esports, with 140-150 million monthly users in 2024, continuing to grow every year. The League of Legends World Championships 2024 broke all viewership records for esports with 6.9 million peak viewers.
Discover Abios Coverage for League of Legends here
Dota 2, Valve Corporation
% of Esports Betting Turnover: 10%
The International 2024: 55,187,616 million hours watched
Riyadh Masters 2024: 26,321,329 million hours watched
Dota 2 is another MOBA game developed by Valve Corporation. As an unofficial sequel to Warcraft III, the game is often considered to be the one popularising MOBA genre among the general public. Dota 2 has the same premise as LoL, but with a higher learning curve.
The International was cancelled in 2020 but has skyrocketed in viewership since its return. It’s known for its massive prize pools, although 2024 was only at $1,176,566 compared to past years, with $34 million on the line.
Discover Abios Coverage for Dota 2 here
VALORANT, Riot Games
% of Esports Betting Turnover: 5%
VALORANT Champions 2024: 46,922,555 million hours viewed
VCT Game Changers 2024: 460,000 peak viewers
VALORANT is another Riot game. This time, it is a shooter with gameplay similar to CS2 but with the addition of agent abilities like Overwatch 2. The game has continued to grow as an esports due to Riot’s ongoing support and intense shooter gameplay blended with teamwork. However, some would argue that CS2 has a much higher skill ceiling than VALORANT, at least when it comes to mechanical skills.
Discover Abios Coverage for Valorant here
Call of Duty Black Ops 6, Activision Blizzard
% of Esports Turnover: 2%
Call of Duty at Esports World Cup: 2.68 million hours viewed
Call of Duty’s most recent game is Black Ops 6 but a lot of the tournaments in 2024 were still running on the older title. There’s no denying that Activision has continued to crank out new Call of Duty titles, likely because of how popular the game has continued to be. There are around 100K concurrent players every month as of fall 2024. When it comes to esports, CoD has a lot of growing to do to keep up with the heavy hitters, but it’s continued to prove itself thanks to the Call of Duty League.
Other big esports include Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, PUBG, and Rocket League. Overwatch 2 has been wavering, however, after the fall of the Overwatch League and Marvel Rivals grabbing the attention of players during this past month.
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