The world of esports brings in hundreds of millions of viewer hours a year across tournaments and professionals streaming these competitive games. These are the five most popular in 2026 ranked by peak viewers across 2025 and early data from this year.
1. League of Legends is the King of Esports Globally
- Peak Viewers of 6.9 million for the 2025 World Championship
- Still topping Twitch viewership charts in 2026
- Biggest esport in Korea, China and Europe
You’ve played games, you know what this is. If there is any game that has dominated the competitive gaming landscape for longer and more completely than League of Legends…
Despite every gaming YouTuber and their dog having at least once told you this game is dead, LoL continues to bring in the esports viewers like no other title can.
Suffice to say a lot of people still watch (and play) League of Legends globally. The 2025 World Championship, won once again by dominant Korean team T1, was the most viewed esports event of the year with 7 million concurrent viewers for the final match, and an average peak of 1.5 million viewers per game across the tournament.
Despite it now being 16 years old, and a popular esport for at least 14 years of that time, LoL’s highly engaging core gameplay, continuous cycle of updates and incredible regional and global esports infrastructure has helped it stay at the very top of the viewership pile for a few years now.
2. Mobile Legends Bang Bang is Huge in Parts of Asia
- Peak viewership of 5 million for the 2025 MPL Indonesia Season 16 finals
- Mobile game like League of Legends, but vastly more popular than LoL’s official mobile game
- Doesn’t get many views on Twitch but tops charts on YouTube gaming with its south east Asian audience
The second biggest esport in the world by viewers, is also League of Legends. But not. To be fair, calling them a clone at this point does it disservice as this mobile game did start that way but is now hugely popular in its own unique way. It’s even proved far more popular than League creator’s Riot Games’ own mobile port of LoL, Wild Rift.
Mobile Legends Bang Bang’s biggest viewed event was the finals of the regional Indonesian league and not even its World Championship event. One of the biggest teams is Selangor Red Giants, although global esports competitor Team Liquid also has a strong team in the game.
3. Counter Strike is the Biggest in Europe and Latin America
- Peak viewers of 1.8 million for Blast Austin Major 2025
- Doesn’t have an in-house co-ordinated league and runs on an old-school individual tournament ranking system
- Been around for decades in various forms
Speaking of Team Liquid, Counter Strike is arguably the foundational esport and it made the now global brand famous, among others. This tactical shooter, from the original Half Life mod to CS:GO and now CS2 has been consistently one of the top esports for decades.
Because esports betting is more niche than traditional sports betting, fans often compare betting bonuses and offers across different sportsbooks using information from betting feedback platforms such as Covers.com.
Counter Strike has also somewhat embraced gambling commercialism with its much-valued skin loot boxes, where rare items can sell for thousands on side markets. Meaning it is one of the more popular esports for betting globally.
4. Riot’s VALORANT is Never Far Behind CS2
- Peak viewers of 1.5 million for the final of Valorant Champions
- Popular among a younger viewer base than CS2
- Rising in popularity in the Middle East and Asia as well as North America
League of Legend’s developer Riot Games crossover of a tactical shooter like Counter Strike with a hero shooter like Overwatch remains one of the bigger esports globally. Launched in 2020, it quickly usurped Blizzard’s popular but mismanaged Overwatch and became the most popular esport of its kind.
Although its 2025 Valorant Champions world finals was not quite as popular with audiences as DotA 2’s The International, its general stream viewership stats and consistent tournament audience numbers throughout the year put it just above Dota 2.
5. Dota 2 Remains Relevant Through its Huge Yearly World Tournament
Dota 2’s The International 2025 was just as big as ever. It has historically pushed the boundaries with prize pools in esports and attracts massive media attention. For those not in the know, Dota is a more hardcore version of League of Legends – although purists would no doubt point out the original Dota came first.
Despite not doing the same numbers in regular viewership on Western streaming sites as other games on this list, the game still has a globally passionate community. Nearly two million fans tuned in to watch Saudi Arabia’s Team Falcons triumph over China’s Xtreme Gaming to clinch a $1.2 million prize in 2025.