TOP-10 esports games in terms of profitability in the first 5 months of 2019
Lord MatusUpdated data in the material: ESportsmen earned more than 216 million dollars of grabs in 2019
Esports Earning has kindly provided the information where all the possible disciplines were indicated. We have chosen ten computer games where the biggest sum of prize money has been fought for.
Note: we have prepared bare statistics. Here we do not include taxes and other moments which could result in withholding some money. We will tell you how much money has been competed for in the disciplines.
10 place — Apex Legends
Competed money: $1,250,016
Held major tournaments: 54
Apex Legends was released at the beginning of February in 2019. This news is interesting due to the fact that the company that released the game did not have any marketing campaign and all the development of the game was made in secret. The game was just released and this event resulted in Apex getting really popular immediately. The American streamers Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV also known as DrDisrespect contributed to it a lot. Their streams popularized the game to a degree and the quantity of people watching the American players exceeded several hundreds of thousands people. Meanwhile Shroud even started to think that someone was dealing with cheating subscribers as 100,000+ viewers was rather unusual, to put it mildly. The peak of success of Apex Legends happened when the game was released. Right after the release, more than 2,500,000 people played Apex in one day and the quantity of people who were present in the new battle royale exceeded 600,000 people. Despite the fact that the game was not an esports discipline, organizers of Apex Legends tournaments managed to have more than $1,250,015 competed for over the last four months. Apex outdid all their competitors, making it to Top One on TwitchTV over a short period of time. Some time later, it went down but still many players play it even if not in the same way as before. The tenth place in the rating is deserved. We should mark that Apex Legends outdid StarCraft II which used to hold the tenth position in similar lists.
9 place — FIFA 19
Competed money: $1,633,310
Held major tournaments: 20
The next game in our today’s rating will be another project by EA. FIFA 19 is a rather questionable project but professional fans of virtual football did not like the game. By general content, the players decided that this version of FIFA was the most difficult in the history of the series while developers promised that they would listen to the reviews of their users and make FIFA 20 much better. We will find out in the autumn whether it is true or false. Twenty major FIFA 19 championships have taken place so far and there $1,633,300 were played for which is rather surprising. With each passing year the activity of the virtual football is getting more imposing and the prize pools — bigger. The football simulator outdid Apex Legends, StarCraft II, Rocket League and other popular esports disciplines. Next year we will probably see a pet project of EA Sports on a higher position.
8 place — Hearthstone
Competed money: $1,768,000
Held major tournaments: 12
The card collection discipline by Blizzard has downtrended. The reports of the mentioned company state that the game is bringing less and less money to its creators. Nevertheless, there are major championships held, the game keeps getting new updates and the total sum of the competed money exceeded $1,700,000. We wonder how the situation of Hearthstone will changebin comparison with other disciplines by the end of the year, but now the card game holds the eighth position.
7 place — Rainbow Six: Siege
Competed money: $2,545,301
Held major tournaments: 18
Rainbow Six: Siege is a shooting discipline where the tactics of a battle and using different gadgets which influence the strategy of players were placed a premium on. Unlike CS:GO which is more arcade and where good shooting and position can have an impact on the results of the battle, playing Rainbow Six you will need a detailed plan and the right usage of characters and necessary gadgets for them. This feature attracted many players and the game managed to grow and outdo such competitors as FIFA 19, Hearthstone, Starcraft II and others. Ubisoft keeps releasing updates of the game over four years and meta of Rainbow Six is on the go, undergoing alterations all the time. The developing company invests big money into prize pools of world champions and thanks to it the esports component of R6 is developing rather well. It will be interesting to observe it, and it is a very pleasing fact that at this moment the total sum of the competed money in 2019 has exceeded $2,500,000.
6 place — PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS
Competed money: $2,640,429
Held major tournaments: 17
PUBG has become a founder of esports Battle Royale. Before that the projects with the battle royale mode were exceptionally ways to entertain yourself in free time, but not esports games. Before Fortnite was released, Bluehole Corp.’s creation had been without a rival and appeared to be the king of the genre. Now PUBG has made way for more promising and innovative Fortnite which won hearts of a big number of viewers. Nevertheless, PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTTLEGROUNDS still represents ten disciplines with the biggest prize pools and it will have its slot in the list for a long time. We can reach the conclusion out of the fact that the developers apply the system of seasons and battle passes which will make it possible to raise extra money with the help of players. Now the sum of the competed prize money at PUBG tournaments exceeds $2,600,000. We think that next year this sum will have become even more serious by June, however in comparison with other disciplines, this game can lose several positions.
5 place — Overwatch
Competed money: $3,347,423
Held major tournaments: 25
Last year Blizzard organized the first season of Overwatch League with a prize pool of $3,500,000. The season turned out to be rather successful and the developers of Overwatch continued developing of the league. In 2019, the sum of the competed money is still the same, but apart from OWL #2, there are other champions where great prize money is fought for. At the moment, the prize money of all the tournaments has exceeded $3,300,000, and there are two stages of Overwatch League Season 2 and the playoff ahead.
4 place — League of Legends
Competed money: $3,881,596
Held major tournaments: 73
League of Legends is one of two whales the genre MOBA is placed on. There are three splits in the discipline: winter, spring and summer. Apart from them, Riot Games, the developers of LoL, also hold two major tournaments: Mid Season Invitational and World Championship. Spring Split and MSI 2019 has taken place so far. In total, there and at two other champions more than $3,800,000 were played for. Riot don’t really aim for increasing of their prize money at their events, but, nevertheless, the structure of the leagues which is present in fifteen divisions and also functioning of esports organization in League of Legends are similar to Swiss watches — it works perfectly.
3 place — Dota 2
Competed money: $6,947,725
Held major tournaments: 57
After August, Dota 2 will definitely reach the first place of this rating due to the reason that The International 2019 will be held. The prize pool at the moment has been raised to more than $13,000,000. However at the previous championships only $6,900,000+ were played for. Dota 2 is the second game the MOBA genre is based on. Unlike League of Legends, Dota 2 prize pools always tend to go up and each and every year they break new records and The International has the edge on almost all traditional kinds of sports.
2 place — Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Competed money: $7,559,168
Held major tournaments: 263
CS:GO is another successful project by Valve. As well as Dota 2, cosmetic in-game things are appreciated there and thanks to it, the developing country earns a lot of money. They hold two Major CS:GO tournaments a year. There the prize pool is set at $1,000,000. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of several disciplines where side tournament operators' prize pools in total are more than at the championships which are held by developers of the discipline. Big prize money, interesting matches, unpredictable results, unusual organization of the championships and creative approach to holding of tournaments are the features which can be presented by such famous companies as ESL, DreamHack, BLAST Pro Series. At the moment a half of 2019 has passed and CS:GO still holds the second place in the list of disciplines with the biggest quantity of competed money. Also we want to pay your attention to the quantity of the held major tournaments in this discipline which have taken place this year. Since the release of CS 1.6, the shooting project has been the most popular among the teams who are engaged in holding esports events. None of the games in this list has achieved 200, while in CS:GO this number is equal to 263.
1 place — Fortnite
Competed money: $12,648,840
Held major tournaments: 163
Fortnite, as it has been mentioned before, is an innovative game in the Battle Royale genre. Unlike its competitors, Epic Games’ project uses the main distinctive element of the mechanics — crafting. If you need to run, shoot, collect weapons and survive in PUBG, Apex Legends and other games of this genre, in Fortnite the players have to gain resources and to make buildings. Those, who can’t build, can’t win. This factor significantly increases the limit of passing to the competitive element of Fortnite. If players want to improve their personal skill and start to earn with this fame or just to play well, they will have to crack building process and the competitive element comes down to the rule “Those, who build better, win”. Of course, some players can be lucky to win over their opponents while shooting or just being lucky, but a skill to build significantly increases your chance to win. Fortnite gained popularity really quickly also thanks to the popular streamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins who managed to popularize the game as he has a huge army of fans. Due to the fact that Epic Games managed to attract a big audience to their project, the decision to invest $100,000,000 into the prize pool of Fortnite tournaments has been made. Even the MOBA discipline Dota 2, the famous discipline, hasn’t been able to achieve the same sums.
And now the most interesting: at the LAN finals at the Solo mode the prize pool of $30,000,000 will be played for and at the Duos mode — also $30,000,000. Think it over: at every mode the organizers will have 30 million competed. Which discipline can boast about the same success?