Most popular eSports games, players, teams, organisations, tournaments

Over the last three decades, video games and esports, in general, have transformed from this pass-time activity that nerdy kids enjoy to this global sports and entertainment industry that has surpassed music and movies in annual turnover. All this begs the question, what are the most popular esports in 2023?

Even as esports continues to gain popularity and set new trends, new games are released daily. Some games, players, teams, organisations and tournaments have already emerged and established dominance in the industry. What and who are those dominating parties in esports?

What are the most popular esports games?

While trends and new releases cause games to emerge in the popularity list, others fall into obscurity. However, the following have remained on the popularity list for the last three years and are the most popular esports games in 2023.

5. Dota 2

Even though many gaming fanatics may argue that Dota 2 is way past its glory days, but average monthly player count puts it as the fifth most popular game on the planet hosting well over 700k players per any given moment, with average monthly players being 2 million. Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) released by Valve Corp in 2013.

4. Counter-strike: Global Offensive

CSGO, as others normally call it, was released a decade ago, in August 2012, but it has remained one of the most popular games on the planet. Fans and critics love its straightforward, intuitive gameplay, which revolves around the concept of "kill or be killed" and has won several awards. For this reason, the game boasts an average of 35 million players monthly while hosting over a million at any given time.

3. Fortnite

No other game has taken the world by storm quite as Fortnite did. Many consider it a cultural icon, especially with its role in popularising virtual concerts. The game was first announced in 2011 but officially released in July 2017, with its Battle Royale being released in September that year. The game currently has over 257 million users and boasts over 1.5 million live players at any given point.

2. League of Legends

Nice owners Ineos hoping ex-Premier League stars will lead club to promised land

Football

LoL is by far the most played game in Esports, and contrary to the notion that it is losing players outside competitive gaming, it has been gaining players over the years. Released in 2009 by Riot games, it was mostly loved due to its character design and overall quality. As a result, the game currently registers an average of 115 million monthly users and has over 1.8 million on its servers at any given point.

1. PlayerUnknown's Battle Ground (PUGB)-Mobile

PUGB: Royale exploded in popularity in January this year after switching to a free-to-play model to become the most downloaded mobile game with over 1 billion downloads and the most popular esports right now. The game was released on Microsoft's Steam in 2017 and has an upward trajectory to now, where it registers 30 million players daily.

Likewise, below are some games worth mentioning that have been equally popular in the last three years but did not just make our list.