12 Feb, 2025
Esports World Cup 2024: Pioneering a New Era in Competitive Gaming
7 mins read

Esports World Cup 2024: Pioneering a New Era in Competitive Gaming

Skip to content

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

The MENA region has rapidly emerged as a powerhouse in the esports industry, as we anticipated in our 2024 Predictions article. The MENA-3 countries Niko Partners covers closely — the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Egypt, and the UAE— have grown through substantial support from both government and private sectors. This has facilitated the hosting of major international esports events such as Gamers8 and the BLAST Premier: World Final last year. Esports has become a central focus and a key driver of the gaming landscape in the region. The rise of local esports organizations and gaming content creators has further strengthened MENA’s influence. Notable examples include, Team Saudi Arabia, who won the 2023 Overwatch World Cup, and popular Arabic streamers like drb7h, shongxbong, and RakanooLive, who have each amassed millions of followers and hours watched.

Fast forward to 2024, the inaugural Esports World Cup (EWC) is taking place at Riyadh Boulevard City from July 3 to August 25. Funded by KSA’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) as part of the Vision 2030 strategy, the EWC aims to replace the Gamers8 festival with an expanded vision and objectives. This 8-week multi-game tournament, hosted by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) and ESL FACEIT Group (owned by the SAVVY Games Group, under the Saudi PIF) features 22 competitions across 21 different game titles. Boasting a combined prize pool exceeding $ 60 million, the EWC has eclipsed the previous Gamers8 festival’s $ 45 million prize pool, establishing itself as the world’s largest gaming festival to date.

Inside the Inaugural Esports World Cup

KSA has pulled ahead of its neighbors as the leading esports market in the MENA region, following a wave of Investments made by Savvy in 2022 and 2023, and the Gamers8 Festival which took place in Summer 2023. In terms of viewership, Gamers8 2023 reached a total of 62.23M hours watched, with the Riyadh Masters 2023 Dota 2 tournament, accounting for 48% of this total.

Gamers8 in 2023 as a prelude to Esports World Cup

As the inaugural edition of EWC is taking place, we anticipate high viewership records will also be set. Already, the recently concluded EWC Free Fire 2024 tournament is the third most watched Free Fire event since 2022, with a peak viewership of 471,483 according to data from Esports Charts. Meanwhile, the EWC Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup 2024, is the most popular MLBB esports event of 2024 so far, achieving a peak of 2.38 million concurrent viewers

The EWC Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Mid Season Cup marks a historic moment for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) esports, with a record-breaking prize pool of $3 million, the largest in MLBB history, and marking the first time an MLBB event of this scale has been held outside of Southeast Asia. The tournament featured top teams from regional MPL leagues and winners of national qualifiers from countries including China, Mongolia, and Myanmar.

EWC MLBB Mid-Season Cup Grand Finals Match

The EWC MLBB Mid-Season Cup ranks 10th all-time among MLBB esports events according to Esports Charts. It likely would have ranked even higher, but the early elimination of Indonesian teams, who traditionally garner significant viewership, cooled off excitement for the final matches of the tournament.

The Structure of the Esports World Cup

The inaugural edition of EWC boasts a combined prize pool of around $62 million, the largest prize pool ever being awarded in esports history. The prize pool is divided into four categories: Club Championship, Game Championships, Qualifiers, and MVP Awards. The Club Championship will award $20 million to the top 16 teams based on their overall performance, while each of the Game Championships will have a combined prize pool of $33.8 million. Teams compete for approximately $7,600,00 during qualifying events, and the MVP of each Game Championship will be awarded $50,000, accumulating to $1,100,000. Interestingly, each game has its own unique qualifying procedure, however the championship series for each title is part of the EWC. The 22 competitions include:

Source: Liquipedia Alpha

Two of the EWC’s distinguishing features are the Club Program and the Club Championship. The Club Program is a pioneering financial initiative designed to foster sustainable growth and enhance the competitive landscape of esports organizations globally. 30 partnered teams are accepted into the program and will qualify for an annual six-figure payout. In effect the program allows the EWC to directly support participating teams, even if they do not win top prizes. The Club Championship is a competition that all teams may participate in, regardless of their involvement in the Club Program, essentially rewarding teams for their overall performance in the event.

Besides competition, the EWCF also partners with the Esports Awards, which will be held in Riyadh on August 24. The awards events for 2024, 2025, and 2026 are set to be held alongside the EWC. The Esports Awards, established in 2015, recognizes esports talent and companies in various categories, including competition, content development, and media. The relationship with the EWC intends to boost the Esports Awards’ expansion by hosting an elevated awards event. The Esports World Cup also draws non-endemic brands such as LG, Adidas, and Pepsi, to mention a few, to support and promote this pioneering event.

Forward-looking into Global Esports Hub

With 70% of its 36 million population under the age of 35, the KSA is leveraging its youthful demographic to explore new opportunities in a rapidly evolving global landscape. Moreover, by hosting the EWC, the KSA seeks to turn the challenge of declining summer tourism, a result of extreme summer temperatures, into an advantage, positioning Riyadh as a premier gaming hub. Prior to the EWC and the Gamers8 festival, there was no other massive scale international multi-game esports championship that covered all major titles and stakeholders. If the event proves to be a success it will be a boon for the Kingdom as well as the global esports industry.

Already signs are positive. The KSA has just signed a strategic partnership with the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to host the first Olympic Esports Games in 2025, with further events scheduled at regular intervals over the next 12 years. Meanwhile the EWC event has partnered Chinese tournament organizer VSPO and China Media Group for a strategic partnership. These deals further solidify the KSA’s status as a global hub for international esports competition, with the EWC leading the way.

Stay tuned for more EWC insights and updates in our next blog post as we closely monitor the event. Check out Niko’s esports research products and services. Keep up with Asia & MENA esports scene through NikoIQ, our intelligent online dashboard. We’re available to discuss your needs for bespoke research through our Custom Research & Consulting Service.

Related Posts




Page load link

Go to Top

Game Online

Gaming Hub

Game online adalah jenis permainan video yang dimainkan melalui jaringan internet. Game ini memungkinkan pemain untuk berinteraksi dengan pemain lain secara real-time, baik itu dalam bentuk kerja sama, kompetisi, atau eksplorasi dunia virtual bersama-sama.