The growth of Esports popularity over the past decade simply cannot be denied. Once considered to be a niche competition only for gamers, Esports has completely transformed into a legitimate sporting competition that generates millions of dollars and viewers every year.
With the popularity that Esports has gained over the years, I wanted to find out which video game competitions are most intriguing to the Esports audience. Below I have constructed a list of the five most popular Esports video games of all-time, based on audience peak viewership.
1. Free Fire
Coming in at the top of my list is the mobile Battle Royale Game, Free Fire. Released back in December 2017, the Android/IOS game has enjoyed a large amount of success among Esports supporters in its five and a half year existence.
Free Fire ranks 17th all time in Esports prize pools and 9th in number of competitive tournaments. Although the mobile game hasn’t enjoyed the same viewership as it had in years past, Free Fire still holds the record for the most number of peak viewers of all-time, when it had over 5.4 million viewers during the Free Fire World Series 2021 in Singapore.
2. League of Legends
One of the most successful video games of all-time, League of Legends has also enjoyed extreme success at the professional Esports level as well. LEague of Legends, made and developed by Riot Games in 2009, is considered to be the most popular multiplayer Online Battle Arena Video game of all-time and it has the figures to back it up.
All-time, League of Legends has the 4th largest Esports prize pool, with just under $94 million being awarded, and 3rd in number of competitions, with over 3,500 professional tournaments in its existence. Always considered to be a fan favorite, League of Legends consistently brings in large audiences, and hold the 2nd largest peak viewership of all-time, when over 5.1 million people tuned into the 2022 World Championships.
3. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Next on our list is another multiplayer online battle arena video game, however, similar to Free Fire, this one is a mobile game. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was released by Moonton Games in July 2016 and has enjoyed quite a successful run since then.
The mobile game has racked up over $10 million in prizes awarded in its history and has also hosted 570 professional Esports tournaments. However, these figures don’t hold a candle to the viewership that the game has been able to attain over the years, as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has the 3rd highest peak viewership ever recorded for an Esports tournament. This happened only a few months ago during the M4 World Championship, which captured a peak viewership of over 4.25 million viewers.
4. PUBG Mobile
The final entry on our list is occupied by yet another mobile game. PUBG mobile, released in February 2018, is a Battle Royale Android/IOS game that has had an unprecedented growth in popularity over the past five years.
Although it is a relatively new game, compared to our other entries, it still ranks 5th in all-time prize pool, with nearly $66 million awarded, and 7th in number of competitions held with just under 1,200. However, their most impressive stat comes from their peak viewership. PUBG Mobile has the 4th highest peak viewership of all time, which happened during the PUBG Mobile Global Championship Season 0 in 2021, which saw over 3.8 million viewers tune in during the peak of the competition.
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