No industry on Earth right now is going through the level of growth anywhere near what the video gaming sector is experiencing right now. Worth more than the music and film industries put together, video gaming has undergone a revenue increase in the past two months experts would normally associate with a two year period, highlighting the rate in which this community is growing.
With so much up for grabs, it’s natural to see so many people trying to clamour in and get a slice of the action. Here’s our take on the three most popular video games players can make money from right now.
3. Dota 2
Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2) was released by Valve Corporation back in 2013 after initially starting out as a mod for Blizzard’s Warcraft III. It immediately saw a surge in popularity for its impressive depth and level of strategy and reached a peak of over a million players throughout 2016 and all the way through to 2017.
Dota has an infamously high entry level and requires many hours of dedication to fully begin to master. It’s difficulty and high skill ceiling is well known and can be a deterrent for some however, for those who stick it out, the rewards can be seriously lucrative.
Dota 2’s International tournament is the high point of the competitive gaming calendar, and makes up four of the top five biggest prize purses in Esports over the years. The 2019 edition continued this growth and set a new record with a whopping $35 million up for grabs, which was eventually won by European org OG back in August.
2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
The most stacked game in terms of competitive calendars, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is the hottest Esport on the market right now. It broke its record for active concurrent players several times throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns earlier this year, reaching over a million players for the first time during this spell, and this has allowed plenty of pros to jump in properly and play games for cash through streams or moneymatches.
In comparison to most other Esports titles, CS:GO is a relatively simple game to follow, but an exceptionally tricky one to master. The skill ceiling in understanding how each map, team and gun plays changes wildly with every update the game goes through, and failing to keep up with the trends will punish any player or wagerer out there.
1. League of Legends
Once again the biggest Esport on the planet heading into the second part of 2020, League of Legends’ fanbase of 250 million is still the best marker of how seriously popular a game Riot’s flagship still is.
The League of Legends World Championship is still the most famous event in the Esports calendar, pulling in a bigger crowd online than the likes of Wimbledon and the US Open and its base prize pool of $2.2 million shouldn’t be sniffed at all. There is an abundance of competitions and tournaments going on at any time around the world, and League of Legends shows no signs of dropping off its pedestal anytime soon.
