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The popularity of esports is increasing day by day. It is a billion-dollar industry now with a huge number of active players and audiences around the world, with games like League of Legends and Fortnite helping to make it so popular.
Here are arguably five of the best esports games around today.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The fourth game in the Counter-Strike series, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) is one of the best multiplayer first-person shooter games of all time. It was developed by Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment and was released in August 2012.
To enjoy the game, download it and you may find it to be as immersive as an online slot experience (please note, gambling is not video games and you need to be 18 or over to play). In CSGO you can encounter difficult bomb defusal situations or be outnumbered and try to survive. As a player, you have to be sharp to shoot your way through these situations.
Playing this game in tournaments of course adds another layer of excitement. For viewers, it provides a great show.
CSGO has become a huge commercial success and paved the way for several major esports tournaments, allowing top organisations and teams to form and seek trophies.
League of Legends
It’s been more than ten years since League of Legends first arrived, but there’s barely been a dip in popularity. It is still going strong and has a huge fan base, with some 100m player accounts touted by Riot Games.
For those who aren’t aware, in this 5v5 game, players take on the role of a champion who possesses unique abilities and must fight against other champions. The main objective in this game is to demolish the other team’s Nexus, which is the most important structure that lies at the heart of each team’s base. Quick decision making and top-tier tactics are what is required to succeed in this game.
There are multiple esports tournaments in LoL, including the European LEC, US LCS, the World Championship and many more, including regional leagues like the UKLC.
League of Legends received good reviews from critics who particularly praised the game design, high skill ceiling and unique visuals. The game was – and still is – a big commercial success for the US video game developer Riot Games.
Dota 2
As the other major MOBA on the market, Dota 2 was developed by Valve (which also produced CSGO).
Like League of Legends, two teams of five fight one another to take down the enemy’s base and secure victory.
Dota 2 has been responsible for some of esports’ greatest moments and biggest tournaments, including the hallowed International, which boasted a prize pool of some $30m in 2019.
Rocket League
Rocket League might not be as big as the likes of League of Legends or CSGO or other games in this list, but what we love about the game is its accessibility.
It has a 3+ age rating and is super easy to pick up, but hard to truly master. Rocket League is essentially football with cars, and its simplicity is part of its core appeal.
Developer Psyonix has crafted a game with plenty of customisation options and esports tournaments, getting more and more players into the scene over the past few years.
Fortnite
Fortnite, the online battle royale video game that was released in 2017 and developed by Epic Games, has become one of the world’s most popular games over the past few years. It has three distinct modes: Fortnite: Save the World, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Fortnite Creative.
In Fortnite: Save the World, players cooperate with other payers to fight against zombie-like creatures and build structures to defend their objects. In Fortnite Battle Royale, players fight against each other until the last person standing, while Fortnite creative furnishes its players with a lot of freedom for creating worlds and battle arenas.
It’s of course Battle Royale that has proven to be the most popular, culminating in big streaming stars like Ninja and tournaments like the $30m Fortnite World Cup.
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