5 esports games with the highest viewership

Over the past decade, esports games have witnessed increased engagement from gaming communities all over the world. The immense popularity of esports has made the industry a part of mainstream entertainment.

Esports games have competitors going head-to-head against one another in real-time as opposed to playing against the AI in single-player video games. The human factor provides an unparalleled thrill, which is why esports games have such immense viewership.

Here is a list of five of the most viewed esports games that garner a high viewership.

Note: This is an unranked list and the viewership may vary with time.

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Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, CS:GO, and three other esports games with the highest viewership

1) League of Legends

Released in 2009, League of Legends soon took the market by storm. The strategy game features MOBA-style gameplay where players select from a huge list of characters (Champions) to form a team of five and go up against their opponents in an attempt to capture or destroy their bases.

LoL has consistently stayed at the top of the viewership charts, grossing over five million peak viewers in 2022 and four million in the previous year. The game inspired the hit Netflix series Arcane, which even grabbed the attention of non-gamers, increasing its viewership exponentially.

With its immense player base and ever-expanding champions list, there is no reason to believe LoL won't top the charts this year either.

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2) Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

Much like other MOBA games, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang features two teams of five characters (Heroes) on a battle map fighting one another to destroy bases. There are six modes for players to explore, namely: Classic, Rank, Brawl, Custom, vs AI, and Arcade.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) has been a major success since its release, leading Moonton to start professional league tournaments (also known as MPL) as qualifiers for the Mobile Legends World Championship. Despite being a relatively new game, MLBB has already given Dota 2 a run for its money in terms of tournament engagement and viewership in 2021

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3) Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a classic first-person shooter game that has built a massive community over the years. With thousands of professional players, the game is one of the most viewed esports games of all time.

It features two teams of five going up against each other as terrorists and anti-terrorists, with the objective of completing tasks such as planting/defusing bombs and rescuing hostages. The game requires players to utilize tactical strategies such as strafing and peeking to eliminate opponents within a limited time to win each round. The team that wins the most rounds wins the match.

Players will need to think up creative strategies and have a sharp trigger finger. Learning the nature of each weapon and tactical equipment is as important as learning the layout of the maps. CS:GO has stayed in the top five spots throughout 2021 and 2022 and is expected to hold its ground this year as well.

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4) Fortnite

Fortnite is currently one of the most popular battle royale titles. It was released by Epic Games back in 2017, and its viewership had reached over two million by 2019. Fortnite Battle Royale consists of squads of four/two or solo players trying to dominate the map to remain the last one standing.

With its quirky pop culture skins and outlandish abilities, Fortnite quickly gained popularity in the world of esports and now has over 300 tournaments under its belt. The tournaments have impressive prize pools and have attracted thousands of professional players from across the globe.

With the recent release of Fortnite Creative 2.0, Epic Games is ready to take things to another level in 2023.

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5) Valorant

After the massive successes of League of Legends, Riot Games has garnered a lot of fame in tactical shooter games with Valorant. The game's atypical shooting mechanics, paired with the use of various abilities, make for distinctive gameplay and strategies for players.

Two teams compete in groups of five with the objective of taking out opponents and planting/defusing bombs called spikes. Since its release in 2020, Valorant has had over a thousand tournaments with considerable prize pools that have shot up their peak viewership to over a million in 2022.

With over twelve million hours of broadcast material, Valorant has risen to become one of the most viewed esports games in the last three years and continues to attract new players today.