2023 is almost over, so the time is getting ripe to draw some preliminary conclusions based on the data for most of the year. After all, the final months of the year are all about parties, shopping, and stuffing ourselves, which leaves little to no room for competitive gaming. So, without further ado, let’s review what the most popular eSports are in 2023 so far.
One of the ways we can assess the popularity of eSports is to look at the number of people watching it on Twitch, the leading eSports and game streaming platform today. From this point of view, Riot Games’ “League of Legends” is the most popular competitive game today.
And it’s not only followed – it is also one of the most popular eSports for punters. It is followed and bet on by everyone, from fans in the US to eSports South Africa viewers.
With close to 2.3 million peak viewers on Twitch, LoL is by far the most popular competitive game played on a desktop platform.
… because if we take mobile games into account, Mobile Legends: Big Bang clearly steals the spotlight with its 4.2 million peak viewers on Twitch. Released in 2016, Mobile Legends is a ByteDance property, with most of its following coming from Southeast Asia. It is a fantasy MOBA that’s way too similar to LoL (which has prompted a lawsuit as well as a lot of criticism) with rich lore, more than 100 “Heroes”, and its own animated series “Legends of Dawn: The Sacred Stone”.
The world of Counter-Strike underwent a massive change this year: CS: GO was discontinued, and replaced by Counter-Strike 2, the updated version of the game using Valve’s “Source 2” engine.
This didn’t stop CS from grabbing the distinction of having the most tournaments organized throughout the year: more than 470 at the time of writing. And, for better or for worse, it doesn’t look like it has any intention of slowing down.
By far, Defense of the Ancients 2 is the eSports game with the biggest prize pool overall. So far this year, DotA tournaments have paid out $28 million, more than twice as much as CS tournaments have. While DotA’s viewership doesn’t put it among the most-followed eSports, and its reach seems to be a bit limited compared to other games, it remains the most valuable discipline for its professional players.
Let’s conclude by mentioning some of the most popular eSports that have an active and dedicated fan base, not to mention a player base, but didn’t make it to the top. One of the most notable ones is Riot Games’ Valorant which has a very active scene (with more than 350 tournaments this year) and close to 1.5 peak viewers on Twitch, or mobile game Arena of Valor which was played for the first time officially at the Asian Games, along with several other titles, bringing the fans’ Olympic dreams one step closer to reality.