It seems that eSports are getting more popular all the time, especially with Covid and social distancing, so I thought of putting together a little snapshot of which games have the biggest competition winnings. It's a bit of a leap from competition winnings to biggest betting markets, but it gives an idea of where the most money is involved. Does anyone here follow these games closely, or has anyone made a decent amount from eSports betting? It seems like the market will keep growing and if you're able to identify consistent players/teams then there is quite a fortune ready to win.
1. DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) leads the way by a large margin. It currently holds the top 5 spots for largest competition prizes ever. If you look at the top 100 largest prizes for this game alone it totals a massive $171,313,243.05
2. Fortnite has a huge player base around the world and this has helped it to generate some impressive prize pools. The Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 Solo & Duo prizes came to $15,287,500 and $15,100,000 respectively.
3. League of Legends is another game that has been around for a long time and gathered a big following. The LoL World Championship winnings pot averaged $5,488,989 in the three years between 2016 and 2018.
At this point the variety of games gets a little more diluted.
4. Arena of Valor came up with $4,606,400 for participants, with 12 teams competing and 60 players total.
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare offered $4,600,000 in prizes during the 2020 Championship
6. Player Unknown's Battlegrounds managed an epic $4,080,000 up for grabs during the Global Championship 2019 competition.
7. Overwatch has a large group of players, with 77 entrants in 8 teams competing for a $3,050,000 potential payout during the 2020 Playoff Grand Finals.
8. Rainbow Six Siege offered up $3,000,000 during the "Six Invitational 2020" and had 80 players battling it out.
9. SMITE was able to put together $2,612,994.19 in prizes for their league all the way back in 2015.
10. Halo 5: Guardians rounds out the top ten with $2,500,000 that was up for grabs during their 2016 Halo World Championship battle.
For reference, this list was compiled with the help of the ranking table at
https://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments