Over the past ten years, gaming and the eSports industry as a whole have advanced significantly. These occasions draw tens of thousands of spectators and watchers and are always entertaining to see. With more competitions being organised globally since the 2010s, the number of players competing in eSports events is rising quickly. With that, the number of players who also bet on esports is forever increasing, as esports betting in Australia and other countries like the UK and India are proving.
There are some games that are more well-known and predominate the scene than others, despite the fact that the eSports industry is growing in popularity and new games are produced every other year.
Arena of Valor
One of the earliest Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games to be released for smartphones was Arena of Valor. With the increased use of technology, it has developed much more, especially in South-East Asian countries, and currently holds some of the best tournament prize money.
The game has exceeded 28 million downloads in Thailand in less than one year and a half, and other major markets include Vietnam and Chinese Taipei. For instance, mobile gaming accounts for 45% of the market in Thailand, and smartphones are significantly responsible for the country’s online gaming sector expanding by over 20% annually.
Arena of Valor, a global adaptation of Tencent’s MOBA game Honor of Kings, brought in more over US $2 billion in revenue on the App Store and Google Play Store alone in 2021, increasing the game’s overall revenue to an astounding US $10 billion since its introduction in 2015.
EA Sports’ FIFA
As a result of EA Sports’ ongoing efforts to carve out a position for itself in the rapidly expanding eSports scene, the FIFA franchise continues to increase in popularity.
The FIFA 21 Challenge broke all records to become the most viewed eSports competition that EA Sports has ever held. Professional football players from all over Europe and skilled gamers competed in a single-day competition for a share of the US $20,000 charity prize money. The occasion also served as a promotional competition for the FIFA 21 brand worldwide. Naturally, EA Sports boasted about how many people watched the FIFA Challenge, claiming that the one-day event had an average minute audience (AMA) of 254,057, more than doubling the previous EA Sports record for viewing, which was set by the FIFA Global Series FUT Champions Cup: Barcelona (92,678 AMA).
Valorant
First-person shooter (FPS) Valorant is a relatively new free-to-play title created and launched by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows. Initially viewed in October 2019 under the name Project A, the game introduced a closed beta with limited access on April 7, 2020. It was officially released on June 2, 2020.
A team-based FPS with a near-future setting is called Valorant. Players can select any one of the 18 characters or agents that are available in the main game. However, teams of five players are designated to either defend or attack. These agents have special skills, each of which needs charges, as well as a special ultimate skill, which also needs charges through kills, deaths, orbs, or performing tasks.
In order to lay the groundwork for the development of an eSports scene for the game, Riot Games chose to organize the inaugural competition, dubbed “First Strike.” The VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT), a year-long tournament series with three levels, was introduced by Riot Games in November 2020.
The 2021 VALORANT Champions were held in Berlin from December 1–12, 2021. Acend won the championship match against Gambit Esports 3-2 to become the first-ever world champion of Valorant eSports.
League of Legends
In 2009, Riot Games created and released League of Legends (LoL), a multiplayer online battle arena computer game. The game has been free to play since its release in October 2009, however it earns money through downloadable character customizations.
Each team in League of Legends (LoL) consists of five players. Players take control of “champion” role characters, which have special powers and play styles. A team wins in Summoner’s Rift, the game’s primary mode, by entering into the opponent base and destroying its “Nexus,” a massive structure.
There were 44 and 45 peak million concurrent viewers for the League of Legends World Championship finals in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The North American league playoff is aired on cable television by the sports network ESPN, and the corporation also sells streaming rights to the game. In China, the exclusive streaming rights for the domestic and other regional leagues are owned by Huya Live, whereas the rights to stream international events like the World Championships and the Mid-Season Invitational were sold to Bilibili in Fall 2020 for a three-year deal reportedly worth US $113 million.
