For many, it has been a long two decades and a long road to get to the place we’re in today, with a handful of esports titles being a household name and the audience continuing to grow too. With some reaching millions of regular monthly players, whilst questions still grow around whether or not there’s longevity to esports as a whole with some organizations running into financial issues, for most it’s a thriving market that shows no signs of slowing down. But how are the big games fairing in the current market and what looks to be the next big thing?
League of Legends & DotA2
The two biggest esports titles of the noughties and the teens, both still have an enormous fanbase worldwide and put on huge shows at the end of the year for their world championships showing that after over ten years these games have remained relevant – but that isn’t to say they’re not running into some difficulties. Both games are now showing their age and whilst still popular, the MOBA genre itself has started to slow too as audiences draw their attention to other games.
There’s still some life to be drawn from both games, but it is safe to say neither are at the prestige they once were, for League of Legends the North American market which helped to solidify the game has been in decline with viewership on its way down too, but other markets still remain very strong and growing in some instances, but other games are certainly trying to capture some of that success.
Overwatch
At one point Overwatch was the pinnacle of the hero shooter genre, whilst it was never really as big as some of the other big esports it did well in franchising and was successful for a period of time, and there had been some excitement around the successor with minor changes to the gameplay loop and other core aspects of the game once Overwatch 2 had been announced.
It has been something of a rocky road since this initial success, however, the launch of Overwatch 2 has been met with overwhelmingly negative feedback and doesn’t seem to be having much luck in launching a successful esports campaign.
It’s still bringing in some players but it’s hard to know whether or not the players are falling or remaining the same, and with established players being unhappy with the state of the game and better alternatives, many are starting to move on.
Valorant & Counter-Strike
Since the release in 2020 it’s safe to say that Valorant has been the esports game with the most attention, it has captured a huge audience in North America and quickly grown in Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world too – whilst there’s no 100% accurate player count available, some tracking platforms suggest a monthly 20 million active players. With such a large audience, it has also helped lead to the growth of alternative markets too as players looking to bet on esports games like Valorant and Counter-Strike have continued to grow.
Counter-Strike fans have just as much to be excited for too, with the release of Counter-Strike 2 seemingly imminent and some exciting changes to the core gameplay loop to bring it in line with competitors like Valorant, there are some big changes afoot for the next big major event and players definitely seem ready for these changes too with Counter-Strike looking to regain its spot as the biggest competitive FPS game on the market.
For esports fans as a whole, there’s lots to be excited for however, whilst some games are showing their age, they’re still extremely successful and there’s a lot of promise for delivering new games too as the esports market as whole thrives, and continues to bring more change to the fastest growing sport in the world.