Gaming has evolved exponentially over the last 30 years. During the 1980s and 1990s, it was a hobby that only “nerds” got involved in. During the early 2000s and into the 2010s, more and more adults began gaming (some of them the aforementioned “nerds”).
Now, gaming has become a competitive sport. Popular titles, listed below, have even hit a level where online bettors can place wagers on the action. As we head into 2024, it helps to know which titles are going to be leading the charge.
Fortnite
Just as you can place a wager on online slots, you can now put wagers down on the top gamers in the world. Perhaps the most common title that you will see involved in eSports betting is Fortnite. The game was released in 2017 and instantly became a worldwide phenomenon.
It has been involved in some of the biggest eSports tournaments in the world, including Fortnite-specific events like the Fortnite Fall Skirmish Series and Fortnite World Cup Finals. More than $174 million in total prize money has been awarded and top Fortnite players are recognized throughout the gaming world.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Now more than a decade old, CS:GO has become a staple of the eSports world. First-person shooters have become immensely popular since the latter part of the 2000s, and CS:GO has become a featured part of eSports gaming. This is the fourth entry in the Counter-Strike series, a game where two teams battle one another.
One team attempts to plant a bomb and take hostages while the other team attempts to stop them. The PGL Major Stockholm is the biggest event in the CS:GO realm right now. More than $160 million in prize money has been awarded since the game’s release in 2012 and looks like it will be around for the foreseeable future.
Defense of the Ancients 2
If you are a burgeoning eSports gamer looking to make a career out of this, the single biggest game to get involved in is Defense of the Ancients 2. DOTA 2 is a battle arena multiplayer game from the Valve corporation, which has developed the aforementioned titles. It is a sequel but one that has become extremely popular throughout Europe and North America.
Very similar to CS:GO, there are two teams of five that defend an area on the map. The only way to win is by infiltrating the opposition’s structure to destroy the “Ancient” within the base. An astounding $340.2 million in prizes have been awarded to DOTA 2 players, much of which has come from The International, the biggest DOTA 2 event of the year. Expect it to continue being a dominant title in the eSports world for the foreseeable future.
League of Legends
Older than all of those titles is League of Legends, which has been around since 2009 (that’s 15 years!). This multiplayer real-time strategy action game developed by Riot Games is particularly popular in Asia. Though it doesn’t have the number of players or the level of prize money as other games on the list, the popularity of LoL cannot be questioned.
The LoL World Championship has been the driving tournament behind League of Legends, helping to generate a whopping $105 million in prizes and cash. League of Legends is very similar in many regards to DOTA 2. It also features a pair of teams, whether they be 3 or 5 players deep. The goal is to destroy the other team’s structure known as a Nexus. Some might argue that League of Legends’ popularity is waning but it will continue to be a main part of eSports gaming in 2024.