Cybersports is one of the fastest growing segments of economic activity nowadays. Not only the number of disciplines and competitive events is increasing, but also the interest of the audience and the amount of funds that the industry attracts. In this article, let’s take a look at how audience interest and prize pools have changed in recent years.
How the eSports audience has changed in 5 years
Based on data from Statista, let’s take a look at how the audience interest in cyber sports events has changed from 2020 to 2025. According to the data provided, it is predicted that in 2025 the audience size will exceed the mark of 640 million viewers, 318 of which will be loyal fans of the cyber sports industry, and more than 322 million – casual viewers. According to the portal’s authors, in 2020, the audience size will slightly exceed 435 million viewers, of which 215 million will be regular viewers.
| Year | Casual viewers (million) | Loyal fans (million) |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 322.7 | 318.1 |
| 2022 | 270.9 | 261.2 |
| 2021 | 249.5 | 240.0 |
| 2020 | 220.5 | 215.2 |
Based on the relevant data, it can be concluded that the audience growth from 2020 to 2025 has exceeded the 200 million mark.
Europe and America are lagging behind: who really follows eSports?
The most involved region in cybersport is Asia-Pacific, which accounts for 57% of all viewers. It is worth noting that China and the Philippines, which are part of this region, account for 40% of the global fanbase. The European region gives 16% of viewers, North America – 12%, and the remaining regions account for 15%. The relevant information is taken from the report on the Statista portal.
Top tournaments by number of viewers
According to Statista, last year’s League of Legends 2024 World Championship became the most watched tournament in the history of cybersport, although the prize pool of the event amounted to only 2 225 000 dollars, while the historic The International 2021 on Dota 2 with a record prize pool of more than 40 million, was in 19th place. This fact clearly indicates that the size of the prize pool does not have such a direct impact on the interest in the tournament. Nevertheless, the interest of the audience is highly dependent on the popularity of the game underlying the eSports discipline. Data from eSports Charts confirms that League of Legends tournaments are currently the most viewed, while the second most popular eSports destination is indicated by Free Fire.
| № | Tournament | Number of viewers (million) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | League of Legends 2024 World Championship | 6.86 | ||
| 2 | League of Legends 2023 World Championship | 6.40 | ||
| 3 | Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore | 5.41 | ||
| 4 | League of Legends 2022 World Championship | 5.15 | ||
| 5 | Mobile Legends M5 World Championship | 5.07 | ||
| 6 | Mobile Legends M4 World Championship | 4.27 | ||
| 7 | Mobile Legends M6 World Championship | 4.13 | ||
| 8 | League of Legends 2021 World Championship | 4.02 | ||
| 9 | Mobile Legends MPL Indonesia Season 14 | 4.01 | ||
| 10 | League of Legends 2019 World Championship | 3.99 | ||
| 11 | League of Legends 2020 World Championship | 3.88 | ||
| 12 | PUBG Mobile Global Championship Season 0 | 3.80 | ||
| 13 | Mobile Legends MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 | 3.65 | ||
| 14 | Mobile Legends M3 World Championship | 3.19 | ||
| 15 | Mobile Legends M2 World Championship 2021 | 3.08 | ||
| 16 | Mobile Legends MPL ID Season 9 | 2.85 | ||
| 17 | Mobile Legends MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2022 | 2.80 | ||
| 18 | CS:GO PGL Major Stockholm 2021 | 2.75 | ||
| 19 | Dota 2 The International 2021 | 2.74 | ||
Dynamics of prize pools of eSports events
Using data from Statista, let’s track how the total prize pools of cyber sports tournaments have changed from 2017 to 2023. In addition to the yearly increase in total prize money, we can see that the amounts have increased multiple times from $120 million to more than $550 million over this period. At the same time, the biggest increase, of more than 90 million, occurred in 2019 in relation to 2018.
It is worth noting that the authors of the portal estimated the volume of the global cybersports market at 2.89 billion dollars in 2025.
Biggest eSports tournaments by prize pool
According to Esports Earnings, The International 2021 became the largest tournament in the history of cybersports in terms of prize money, when participants raffled off more than 40 million dollars. The top 10 included 7 TI Series Dota 2 events, as well as Fortnite championships, which were ranked 8th and 10th. The Riyadh Masters Dota 2 2023 tournament is in 9th place.
| № | Tournament | Prize Pool (million $) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The International 2021 | 40.02 | ||
| 2 | The International 2019 | 34.33 | ||
| 3 | The International 2018 | 25.53 | ||
| 4 | The International 2017 | 24.69 | ||
| 5 | The International 2016 | 20.77 | ||
| 6 | The International 2022 | 18.93 | ||
| 7 | The International 2015 | 18.43 | ||
| 8 | Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 – Solo | 15.29 | ||
| 9 | Riyadh Masters 2023 | 15.12 | ||
| 10 | Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 – Duo | 15.10 | ||
Although Dota 2 still holds the lead in terms of the largest cybersport, recent years have seen a decline in prize money in this discipline. In 2025, the highest prize pool in the discipline was the Riyadh Masters, where 5 million was awarded, which is already far less than last year’s championships. Against the background of decreasing prize money in Dota 2, the sums in more popular cyber sports disciplines are increasing.
Top 5 cyber sports disciplines by prize pools
According to eSports Charts, we have compiled the top five biggest eSports disciplines in terms of prize pool size.
| Place | Game | Prize pool | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dota 2 | $339,825,893 | ||
| 2 | Counter-Strike | $163,339,585 | ||
| 3 | Fortnite | $131,243,527 | ||
| 4 | League of Legends | $111,459,439 | ||
| 5 | PUBG Mobile | $101,353,899 | ||
Conclusion
Based on the analyzed information we can conclude that every year there is a rapid increase in the interest of the audience in cybersports, which leads to an increase in the total amount of prize money in such tournaments, although within individual disciplines there may be some decline.
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