*Disclaimer: The following article was written by a guest author, and it may not necessarily represent Inven Global's editorial stance. 

What are the most popular games this year?

Since the 90’s esports has gone from being a competition amongst friends and against teams in the local area to a worldwide phenomenon, when it comes to the biggest games on the esports scene you’ll see this year, it is led by no other than DOTA 2. The International Tournament last year had a massive $25 million prize pot.

Following up in a close second spot is the most popular first-person shooter on the scene, CS: GO boasting a vast and loyal user base since its inception back in 2012. There are many regional tournaments for CS: GO with it being the fourth most popular game in March 2019.

After this, you have the shooter Overwatch released by Blizzard just three years ago which has since seen it’s player base rocket to 40 million in just two years giving the company over $1 billion in revenue. The Overwatch League is currently in its second year with the finals being held at Blizzard arena with a prize pot of $3.5 million.

In fourth place is the fierce competitor to DOTA 2, and this is League of Legends with a player base of over 120 million players making it the most popular game in the world in terms of the player base. It also hosts some of its world championship series tournaments in national stadiums attracting tens of thousands of spectators.

Finally, we have the first person shooter Rainbow Six Siege which is part of the Tom Clancy franchise and has around 20 million registered players and is one of the fastest growing esports games only being 10 million behind the competition such as Overwatch and Destiny 2.


What are the most significant tournaments?

The biggest tournament to both watch and bet on this year, of course, belongs to the most popular esports game and that is DOTA 2 and The International, which last year saw the winners take home a prize pot of $11.2 million. The tournament is scheduled to start on August 20th and will be held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.

Another tournament to look out for is, of course, the League of Legends World Championship. The finals last year were spread out across multiple South Korean cities and remained one of the most watched events in esports history. There are a total of 24 teams vying for the price, which for the winner in 2018 was $2.4 million from a $6.4 million pot and this was by the team Invictus Gaming which was heavily backed by punters.

If you fancy watching a different style of tournament there is always the Overwatch League that follows the format of standard North American sports where there are both regular and postseason plays and an all-star game, and this runs from January to August set out at various venues across the world with the final being held at the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California.


A final few words

This year is a fascinating one for esports. Not only due to the tournaments and games we’ve talked about so far but also some of the emerging games in esports such as Battle Royal Games Fortnite and Apex Legends.

These are vastly increasing in popularity with Fortnite currently in the stages of its world cup with thousands of players worldwide vying for a spot in the world cup finals. Apex Legends also has brought a new twist to the Battle Royale genre and was the second most played game in March 2019 and will soon be hosting tournaments on the esports scene in no time at all.