The inaugural Esports World Cup kicked off in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 3 July. Already, the first couple of weeks have been full of record-breaking statistics, impressive victories, and devastating defeats. Being the biggest Esports event in the world, there’s certainly plenty to talk about already.
The conclusion of the World Cup is still a long way off, as games will be played right up until the 25 August. Along the way, we’ll see 22 different competitions taking place, with 21 different video games being played.
At this early stage, it would be good to review how the World Cup is shaping up. Here’s the story so far:
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Record-breaking prize money
The 2024 Esports World Cup features the biggest prize pool of all time. The winners of the 22 competitions will share a total of $60 million (£47.2 million).
The previous record for prize pool money was $45 million (£34.8 million). This record had only been set last year at the Gamers8 event, which was also held in Saudi Arabia, in 2023.
The current eight-week competition is guaranteed to generate a lot of money for the sport, both through viewership and other means. One industry that’s benefiting particularly well from events like this is the Esports betting industry.
As Ryohei Kiriyama explains in this article published on Techreport JP, some of the best no-ID online casinos now accept eSports wagering. Some even allow you to bet with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This is unsurprising, given how popular crypto gambling has become.
League of Legends winners
One of the biggest competitions in the Esports World Cup took place and concluded within the first week of the competition: League of Legends. T1 was announced as the winner having beaten TOP Esports (TES) with a final score of 3-1. TOP Esports are considered to be China’s best Esports team, so this victory is very impressive.
T1 are four-time world champions and feature the legendary Esports player Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. Faker (28), who is from South Korea, is considered to be one of the greatest professional Esports players of all time. He was awarded the MVP award for the final game against TES, who demonstrated his signature Ahri pick during the game.
In addition to taking home yet another Trophy, T1 walked away from the competition with $400,000 (£308,900) from the prize pool.
In terms of worldwide viewership, around 1.11 million people tuned in to watch the game. While still impressive, this is nowhere near the current Esports record for peak viewership, which was 6.4 million. Interestingly, this record was made during the League of Legends World Championship 2023.
Team Liquid, arguably the biggest Esports team in the world, is also competing in the World Championship but has yet to win anything. They make $93.2 million a year in revenue.
Also read: Free Fire in the 2024 Esports World Cup Officially Competed!
Call of Duty: Warzone winners
The Warzone tournament has also already concluded, with Team Falcon being crowned as champions. Founded in 2017, Team Falcons are one of the best Esports teams from Saudi Arabia, and this win signaled the first victory of the competition for a home team.
Team Falcon won a relatively smaller prize than T1 however, given that they only took away $200,000 of the prize pot. There’s obviously a lot more money in League of Legends than there is in Call of Duty, given that LoL is the number one Esports game in the world as of 2024. It has a monthly player count of 180 million.
CoD, on the other hand, is the 17th most popular Esports game. According to Steam Charts, CoD had an average player count of 75,656 in June 2024.
This was also reflected in the viewership for Warzone. Peak viewership for this part of the competition was 135,000 viewers, which was significantly lower than the LoL viewership.
Final thoughts
Even though LoL and CoD have ended, the Esports World Cup still has many interesting events on the horizon. With Rocket League, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege still to play, there's still a lot at stake for Team Falcon and T1.
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