Electronic Sports or esports is a type of competition using computer or mobile games. Generally, esports appear as sorted out, multiplayer video game competitions. The first-ever eSports competition took place in October 1972 at Stanford University and the game was Spacewar. Since then Evolution of eSports as an industry has taken place with games like Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Brawl Stars, Free Fire, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to name a few.
The esports scene is changing faster than we can imagine
As eSports has become the new normal even in developing countries like India, people bet on online betting sites in India just like other sports. What draws people on online betting is the prize pool given by the game developers in the championships. For example, the Call of Duty Mobile World Championship 2020 has a prize pool of more than $1 million and Free Fire India Championship 2020 had a prize pool of ₹35,00,000. And who knows, maybe we’ll see online betting in mobile esports as well in the future.
Best eSports till now
The criteria to judge an eSport can be the total hours it was watched, the Average viewership of the particular eSport, and the Peak viewership of the eSport tournament.
- Most Hours Watched: The League of Legends World Championship 2019 was the most-watched tournament with 137 million hours watched. Number 2 came Dota 2 with 88 million hours watched.
- Average Viewership: The Free Fire World Series’ Rio was the tournament that witnessed the highest average viewership of 1.2 million.
- Peak Viewership: The League of Legends World Championship 2019 had the highest peak audience with 3.9 million viewers during the semi-finals. The Fortnite World Cup 2019 Finals witnessed the second-highest peak viewership with 2.3 million viewers watching.
Possibly the Best Mobile eSports Competitions of 2020
PC players might be taking this lightly but they will be amazed to know that the PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 had a $2.5 million prize pool, that’s more than esports like FIFA.
The year 2019 witnessed many records in the mobile eSports category. Be it the number of viewership in tournaments or rising prize pools. The best Mobile eSports competition in 2020 are:
1. PUBG Mobile
Tencent backed PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 was successfully concluded with the biggest prize in mobile esports. While there is no doubt that PUBG Mobile is already revolutionizing the Mobile Esports scene, 2020 looks even brighter for PUBG Mobile Esports. Throughout 2019, PUBG Mobile had quite a lot of esports events globally and regionally.
The biggest initiative for 2020 is the PUBG Mobile World League, PUBG Mobile Campus Championship 2020, PUBG Mobile Club Open 2020, PUBG Mobile Regional Pro League, PUBG Mobile World League and World Championship 2020 are some the titles which they announced for 2020. Currently, PUBG Mobile India Series (PMIS) is ongoing for a prize pool of INR 50 lakh.
2. Free Fire
Free Fire was launched in March 2017 for both Android and iOS devices. The game is based on standard battle royale mode where fifty players drop on the island and the last surviving player wins the game. It was the biggest mobile esports of 2019 in terms of viewership. Free Fire India Championship 2020 was successfully completed in March and players are waiting for Free Fire World Series 2020.
3. COD Mobile
Call of Duty: Mobile may have released just months ago but it is very well received by the gaming community. Call of Duty: Mobile was the most-downloaded game on both the App Store and Google Play in Q4 2019. It was also voted the EE Mobile Game Of The Year 2020 at the BAFTA Games Awards. Activision announced COD Mobile World Championship 2020 with a prize pool of more than $1 million. We can expect more such tournaments considering the popularity of the game in the upcoming days.
What do you think about the evolution of esports as an industry in the comments section. If you find this helpful, make sure to follow GamingonPhone on Facebook and Twitter for more gaming news. And if you are looking for a group of mobile gamers to hang out, jump into our Discord server today.