Was the Esports World Cup 2025 a viewership success?

Taking place throughout July and August, the 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC) featured 25 tournaments across 24 esports titles, with hundreds of players and several esports organisations from around the world taking part.

Since its inaugural event in 2024, discussions about the Esports World Cup’s viewership have remained a hot topic among fans and industry stakeholders. Like last year, the tournament was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which continues to draw criticism due to the Kingdom’s human rights record. Now that all of its tournaments have concluded, the question is how many viewers tuned in to the competition, where $70m (~£52.2m) was up for grabs?

Esports Insider takes a closer look at the stats for each title separately to see how the event compares with last year and its competitors.

All data mentioned is courtesy of the esports data and analytics platform Esports Charts, and doesn’t include Chinese viewing figures.

Following Riot Games’ partnership with the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) in February, VALORANT made its debut at this year’s Esports World Cup. The tournament peaked at 451,943 viewers during the Grand Final between Fnatic and Team Heretics. 

Compared to VCT Masters Toronto, however, the peak viewing figure for the EWC was significantly lower.

The former reached a peak of 1.1m viewers, more than double the number received by the Saudi Arabian event. This may be due to fans deciding to boycott the event over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. 

While the Esports World Cup failed to reach the heights of VCT events, it still managed to attract solid viewing figures compared to other first-person shooter titles at the tournament.

League of Legends at the 2025 Esports World Cup was one of several tournaments to take place during the opening month. 

Now in its second year, average viewership dipped slightly with an average of 472,518 in 2025 compared to 2024’s 566,478 figure.

The tournament’s peak viewership did fair better, increasing from 1.12m to 1.2m in 2025. This figure was bolstered in large part due to the 2025 Esports World Cup’s extensive co-streamer line-up, which included one of League of Legends’ most popular creators Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont. According to Esports Charts, the streamer reached a peak viewership of 152,000 during the competition.

Overall, the League of Legends Esports World Cup 2025 event has become the third most-popular League of Legends competition of the year so far, ranking behind the LCK Road to MSI with 1.9m and MSI with 3.4m.

Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) was one of the last tournaments to conclude at this year’s Esports World Cup, with the attention of attendees focused on the hometown side of Team Falcons looking to win on home turf.

Counter-Strike 2 fell short of its 756,000 peak viewership at the 2024 Esports World Cup, with this year’s tournament peaking at 739,992 viewers.

Early eliminations of Team Spirit, FaZe Clan and defending champions NAVI likely led to lower numbers from Russia and Western Europe. Despite this, the tournament received strong interest from Mongolia and Turkey, likely due to the fact that local organisations, The MongolZ and Aurora Gaming, reached the Grand Final.

The ALGS Midseason Playoffs marked the halfway point of the 2025/26 Apex Legends esports season, with EA joining forces with the Esports World Cup to host a sanctioned tournament as part of the event.

The event recorded a peak of 253,484 viewers, a slight increase from the ALGS Open earlier in the year (249,547).

Compared to last year’s event, the ALGS Midseason Playoffs did record a higher peak viewership (219,800) and average viewership (98,000). However, it is important to note that its 2024 Esports World Cup event wasn’t a part of Apex Legends’ official esports circuit and was a third-party event.

The only Apex Legends tournament this year to record a higher peak viewership than the ALGS Midseason Playoffs was the Year 4 ALGS Championship (540,364), which took place in January 2025.

Rainbow Six Siege X‘s Esports World Cup competition was one of the title’s biggest events despite not being part of its official esports circuit.

After failing to break 70,000 peak viewers last year, 2025’s tournament peaked at 249,291 viewers, making it the second most-watched event of the year behind the Six Invitational.

Perhaps one of the event’s biggest selling points was that it was the first major event to take place following the launch of Rainbow Six Siege X in June 2025. This isn’t the first time that fans of the esport had seen teams compete in the revamped game, with RE:L0:AD 2025 using Siege X for its May event. That event recorded a peak viewership of 216,300.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) hosted two tournaments as part of the 2025 Esports World Cup. The mobile MOBA title remains one of the most popular in the world and drew significant attention with the Mid-Season Cup (MSC) and Women’s Invitational taking place.

The MLBB Women’s Invitational 2025 was one of the first tournaments to conclude, reaching a peak of 496,954 viewers across its 34-hour airtime. This year’s tournament has seen a significant viewership increase compared to 2024, which peaked at 265,117.

The Women’s Invitational was a viewership success, recording higher figures than Apex Legends, Dota 2, and VALORANT, making it one of the most-watched female esports events of all time.

Elsewhere, MSC began with high viewing figures from the outset. The group stage of the competition peaked at 1.2m viewers, while the playoffs hit a peak of just over 3m viewers.

Compared to the 2024 event, the MSC’s peak viewing figures rose significantly from 2.35m, demonstrating the impressive growth of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s esports scene. 

PUBG Mobile has been a staple of esports in Asia for several years, and its second appearance at the Esports World Cup looked to build on the 566,118 peak viewership achieved in 2024. 

2025’s PUBG Mobile World Cup peaked at 1.3m viewers, a 145% increase from the previous year. In addition to the significant uptick in the peak viewing figure, average viewing figures also doubled from 206,000 to over 450,000.

Alongside PUBG Mobile, PUBG’s PC version also hosted a tournament but performed worse than its mobile counterpart.

The title peaked at 258,876 viewers, with an average of 98,324 during its Esports World Cup appearance. 

Compared to 2024, hwowever, the peak more than doubled, making it the 16th most-watched PUBG event of all time. The most-watched event of the year is currently the PUBG Nations Cup, which peaked at 818,020 viewers.

Rocket League remains one of the most popular sports simulation titles in the world and continues to build on the success of the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS). 

This year’s appearance at the Esports World Cup attracted a peak of 230,209 viewers, eclipsing last year’s peak, which failed to break 100,000. It is worth noting that both of these events operate as separate third-party events to the RLCS ecosystem.

The RLCS Birmingham Major holds the title of the most-watched Rocket League event of the year so far, with a peak of 290,867.

2025’s Esports World Cup saw CrossFire make its debut, attracting several Asian organisations looking to compete in one of the title’s biggest events of the year.

The tournament peaked at 29,855 viewers, making the event the title’s most-watched event of the year so far.

The long-standing first-person shooter title has continued time and time again to demonstrate its longevity. However, the true impact of this event cannot be fully analysed, given it is largely a title that is popular in China.

The pioneering real-time strategy title has been a constant feature in the esports ecosystem, and its popularity at this year’s EWC shows there is still hope for the title.

It attracted peak viewing figures of 79,984, a 31% increase on its 60,884 number at last year’s event. This puts the tournament as the most-watched StarCraft II event of the year so far, which is a promising sign following the closure of the ESL Pro Tour in April.

Honor of Kings remains one of Asia’s most popular mobile esports titles and continues to attract a wealth of attention when its tournaments take place.

This year’s Honor of Kings World Cup peaked at 653,309 viewers, an increase of more than 250,000 compared to the 2024 edition. 

Although Chinese viewership was not included, the event became the most-watched Honor of Kings esports tournament in history, with over 3.6m hours watched across its 71-hour airtime. 

Making its debut at an esports event, Chess featured some of the world’s best players competing for a share of its $1.5m (~£1.1m) prize pool. Won by Team Liquid’s Magnus Carlsen, the tournament peaked at 259,427 viewers, becoming the game’s most-watched event of the year so far. 

Chess may not have been a video game, but it success at the EWC has laid the foundations for a strong end to the year as attention begins to turn towards the World Championship.

Following the conclusion of the Call of Duty League (CDL) season, 11 of the 12 franchises headed to Riyadh along with five Challengers sides for the final tournament of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 season.

The event, won by OpTic Gaming, peaked at 268,927 viewers and recorded 4.1m hours watched across its 35-hour airtime. Compared to 2024, this year’s event was a viewership success, thanks to a peak increase of over 120,000. 

Black Ops 6’s appearance at the EWC makes it the title’s second-most-viewed event. The most-watched title remains the CDL Championship 2025, which peaked at over 350,000 viewers in June.

Despite the uncertain future of Call of Duty: Warzone’s esports scene following the World Series of Warzone’s decision to hold its final without spectators, the Esports World Cup demonstrated that the battle royale title still has plenty of potential as an esport.

This year’s event peaked at 312,793 viewers, a 131% increase from last year’s tournament, which peaked at 135,281 viewers. It became the most-watched Warzone esports event of the year, with Twisted Minds taking the title.

The Esports World Cup hosted the season-ending FC Pro 25 World Championship, the largest EA Sports FC 25 tournament of the year.

The EA-sanctioned event peaked at 109,255 viewers, a slight increase from the 108,056 viewers peak recorded last year.

Despite the marginal rise, the event is still 2025’s most-watched EA Sports FC tournament of the year, narrowly beating the 109,028 peak reached at the eChampions League.

Despite the auto-battler genre seeing a drop in popularity in recent years, Teamfight Tactics (TFT) remains a popular esports title for viewers and players alike. 

This year’s appearance at the Esports World Cup hit a peak of 60,892 viewers, a 73% increase from its 35,000 peak recorded in 2024.  

Although viewership has increased compared to last year, the Esports World Cup is significantly behind 2025’s most-watched TFT event so far. April’s Into the Arcane Tactician’s Crown peaked at 227,035 and remains the most popular TFT event.

Similar to Apex Legends, Blizzard decided to host an offical event as part of this year’s Esports World Cup.

The Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) Midseason tournament peaked at 177,094 viewers, making it the most-watched Overwatch tournament of the year so far. 

Compared to last year’s event, which peaked at 100,188 viewers, Overwatch has seen a 76% increase, continuing to build on the title’s esports efforts following the demise of the Overwatch League in 2024.

2025 marks the first time Dota 2’s presence at the Esports World Cup hasn’t used the Riyadh Masters name, marking a new chapter for Valve’s MOBA title at the event.

This year’s tournament hit a viewership peak of 429,568, an increase of approximately 10,000 from the 2024 Riyadh Masters.

The strong viewing figures have placed the event as the most-watched Dota 2 event of 2025 so far, laying the foundations for Valve’s MOBA title to end its esports season on the front foot at The International 2025.

Free Fire has yet to make a significant impact in the Western esports market, but the shooter title continues to prove popular within Asia.

This year’s appearance at the Esports World Cup garnered peak viewing figures of 555,966, an increase of approximately 80,000 from last year’s event. 

Average viewership also saw a significant increase, with 292,019 tuning in across the event’s 20-hour airtime. At the conclusion of the event, Free Fire’s Esports World Cup event is the most-watched Free Fire event of the year so far.

Tekken 8 was one of several fighting games hosting tournaments at this year’s Esports World Cup, and showcased a trend of FGC titles recording viewership increases at the event in Saudi Arabia.

This year’s event peaked at 89,728 viewers, marking a 48% increase from 2024’s tournament. 

This year’s Esports World Cup saw the debut of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, expanding the event’s range of fighting game tournaments. Launched at the end of April, only a handful of tournaments featuring the title have taken place.

The Grand Final between GO1 and Xiaohai peaked at 60,529 viewers, making it the most-watched Fatal Fury event of the year so far. A solid start from the latest addition to the FGC, which continues to be dominated by the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken.

Street Fighter rounded off the Esports World Cup’s extensive slate of fighting game events.

Zeng ‘Xiao Hai’ Zhuojun’s match against Torimeshi during the Third Phase of the competition hit a peak of 261,074 viewers, resulting in the EWC becoming the fourth most-watched event of the year for Capcom’s popular fighting game. 

Despite not being the most popular Street Fighter event in 2025, compared to 2024, this year’s Street Fighter event saw a 67% increase in viewership.

Returning for its second year, Rennsport continues to build upon efforts to cement a place within sim racing. Last year’s competition saw just over 10,000 viewers tune into the Drivers and Team championships.

Hope of an increase, though, was dashed as this year’s event saw 9,482 viewers at its peak and an average of 5,411.

With the majority of titles at this year’s Esports World Cup recording an increase in viewership from 2024, the event can be considered a success as it continues to establish itself as the largest multi-title esports competition in the world.

However, while viewing figures continue to rise, controversy surrounding the Saudi Arabian event remains.

An Esports News UK report revealed that Superfans who attended the Counter-Strike and Apex Legends events were subject to censorship and unequal treatment, casting a negative light on Saudi Arabia’s attempt to expand its presence within the gaming and esports industries.