Esports has always been an ever-evolving industry, with the sector looking to cement itself within mainstream culture. 

To gauge how the sector has changed, every year Esports Insider asks a range of prominent industry stakeholders to review and reflect on the past year in esports.

Looking back on the year as a whole, 2024 has undergone its fair share of major esports announcements and milestones. Starting with the transition from competitive CS:GO to Counter-Strike 2, the esports sector was introduced to the Esports World Cup and the Overwatch Champions Series. Meanwhile, League of Legends’ LCS bid its final farewell.

2024 was also defined by how esports organisations and ecosystems continued to navigate, adapt and grow throughout esports winter’s tough conditions. Consolidation was a prominent phrase used throughout the year with organisations announcing major acquisitions and mergers to strengthen their position in the sector. 

Read on to see how stakeholders in the sector defined esports in 2024, including which scenes showed the best (and worst) impressions.

This year’s edition features comments from the likes of Team Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, BLAST, ESL FACEIT Group and more. 

Steve Arhancet, CEO, Team Liquid: “In short, it was a complete battleground of enormous transformation for all sides of the equation — players, agencies, teams and developers alike. Some businesses were washed away, but there are still powerhouses in every region, and games are flourishing.

“The number of gamers and esports fans continue to grow but it’s not a given that businesses will be able to capitalise on the opportunity. We have to figure out how to commercialise and engage with them in new and exciting ways, which is challenging, but refreshing.”

Nicolas Maurer, Co-Founder and CEO, Team Vitality: “I’d say 2024 has been a year of consolidation. We’re not seeing many new leagues or games launching, but rather a clearer understanding across the industry of what really matters. The key games and tournaments, like League of Legends, CS2 and VALORANT, are more firmly established, and the gap between these leaders and the rest of the industry is growing.”

Alban Dechelotte, CEO, G2 Esports: “2024 has really been a great year for esports. The introduction of the Esports World Cup providing eight weeks of game-changing competition followed by the announcement of the IOC Olympic Esports Games breathes new life into the ecosystem, on top of all the regular tournaments running all year round. 

“Global fandom is also on the rise. This is something we’ve been working on as we expand our presence across the world, but other teams are succeeding in this as well — no longer are teams just tied to one region with one set of fans…

“Diversity is becoming more normal in esports — there are more tournaments and we even saw mixed tournaments this year with VALORANT and Red Bull, providing opportunities for women to compete alongside men in top-tier competition.”

Monica Dinsmore, Senior Director of Esports and Ventures Brand, Electronic Arts: “In 2024, esports continued to prove its worth as a powerful tool for engagement, reacquisition and community building.

“While the industry is still figuring out a structure that works for everyone, we’re seeing stakeholders reframe their approach to the industry. At EA, we’ve found success by prioritising our player bases in our core competitive titles: Apex Legends, EA SPORTS FC and Madden NFL.”

Faisal Binhomran, Chief Product Officer, Esports World Cup Foundation: “Esports in 2024 was about maturing and flourishing. After a tough 2023, we saw record numbers come back to viewership and events on the professional level, which is incredibly encouraging as we turn the calendar to 2025. 

“With global events like the Esports World Cup, or League of Legends’ Worlds and Mobile Legends’ M6, we see incredible growth and the industry is truly coming into its own.”

Hicham Chahine, CEO, Ninjas in Pyjamas: “Overall it’s been a good year for esports. While the initial months may have been cautious, we’re now in a position where things are beginning to trend upward again. This has been for several reasons, one being the macroeconomic climate. Inflation rates are coming down, which means interest rates are coming down and brands are more excited to invest in esports again.”

Animesh ‘8Bit Thug’ Agarwal, Co-Founder, S8UL: “Esports in 2024 solidified its position as a mainstream cultural phenomenon. The distinction between competitive esports and gaming became clearer, helping audiences and stakeholders better understand the ecosystem.

“At the same time, esports, traditional sports and influencer-driven content began working more cohesively, creating synergies that enhanced fan experiences and industry growth.”

Robbie Douek, CEO, BLAST: “2024 has felt like a year of transformation and growth for esports. After navigating some challenging times in 2022 and 2023, this year has really marked a resurgence — a renewed sense of drive, ambition and focus on consumer-facing events.

“There’s been a clear push to bring esports closer to fans, and that’s been a hugely positive shift for the industry.”

Alban Dechelotte, CEO, G2 Esports: “2024 has been a record-breaking competitive year for G2, with more trophies won than ever before…

“We’ve also continued our growth in China — we’re the top western team in China on social media and top five teams overall vs Chinese teams. Our total VCT bundle sales were more than 50% from our Chinese fans, which is a great indication of our fanbase in the region.”

Marco Mereu, Founder and CEO, M80: Survival. Esports is coming out of its toughest stretch in the history of the industry as the landscape of esports resets to workable models and revenue structures that make sense for long-term growth.

“While many teams were focused almost entirely on sponsorship revenue, we doubled down on emerging categories such as in-game digital goods and influencer-based CPG. This has enabled us to be buyers in a buyers market, most recently acquiring Beastcoast and adding to our esports and media portfolios.

Daniel Finkler, CEO of BIG: “BIG’s standout achievements in 2024 include qualifying for the CS2 Shanghai Major and advancing to the elimination stage — a testament to our players’ dedication and performance.”

Nicolas Maurer, Co-Founder and CEO, Team Vitality: “Team Vitality’s single biggest achievement in 2024 was undoubtedly the CS2 team’s victory at IEM Cologne. As one of the most prestigious esports events, it’s an important box to tick if you want to be amongst the most legendary CS teams ever.”

Steve Arhancet, CEO, Team Liquid: “Navigating our participation at the Esports World Cup held in Saudi Arabia and then finishing second place — I think this was a true achievement on a handful of fronts.

“Our second-place finish was a result of our commitment to and consistency in many top esports titles, and it was especially satisfying to see Clem claim a title in StarCraft II. We were also able to maintain our values and compete as we are at the event, wearing our Pride jersey as we have done so for many years.”

​​Hicham Chahine, CEO, Ninjas in Pyjamas: “Listing NIP Group on the NASDAQ stock market was a monumental milestone for us and it certainly came with its own set of challenges. While we had to adjust during this transition, it firmly supported our plans to expand globally into key regions.

“Looking at how our competitive campaign played out, we lived up to expectations in areas — especially with our great year in the LPL.”

Craig Levine, co-CEO, ESL FACEIT Group: “IEM Cologne sold out the LANXESS Arena and attracted fans from around the world, the inaugural DreamHack Stockholm brought our most-attended European festival to the Swedish capital, FACEIT 2.0 expanded resources on our competitive gaming platform for over 30m users and our Live Legendary campaign put fans at the forefront of ESL’s 25th anniversary.

Robbie Douek, CEO of BLAST: “2024 has been a record-breaking year for BLAST across the board. What really stands out is how much we’ve grown—not just in revenue but in the scale of what we’ve delivered.

“We doubled the number of arena shows compared to the previous year, which is testament to that year-on-year growth. We have been able to ramp up our output across our esports titles, bringing Rocket League and Dota 2 into the mix.”

Michael Haenisch, CEO, Freaks 4U Gaming: “From the corporate and strategic development perspective, our biggest achievement in 2024 was becoming part of NODWIN Gaming…

“Regarding our esports ventures, 2024 was a landmark year for the League of Legends Prime League.”

Moritz Maurer, CEO and Founder, GRID: In 2024, establishing a multi-year partnership with Riot Games as their exclusive in-game data partner for League of Legends and VALORANT marked a major milestone for GRID. 

“This collaboration immediately began with the start of the year — we integrated the GRID Data Platform with League of Legends and launched the GRID League of Legends Competitor Portal already in January.”

Daniel Finkler, CEO, BIG: “Our biggest challenge in 2024 was navigating the financial pressures of an esports ecosystem still recovering from global economic slowdowns. Publisher dominance and unpredictable ecosystem shifts demanded constant adaptation.” 

Steve Arhancet, CEO, Team Liquid: “Navigating the esports winter, while growing considerably.  Most folks who are single-esport fans don’t know this, but we are truly a global enterprise, with Alienware Training Facilities and 350 staff on four continents.

“The amount of macro- and micro-management involved in running the business is something we have mastered over the years — but it’s still not as good as Clem at EWC!”

Michael Haenisch, CEO, Freaks 4U Gaming: “Our biggest challenge in 2024 was navigating the delicate balance between sustainability and stability for the company. 

“This included making the very difficult decision to implement layoffs while ensuring operational continuity as we were and are still recovering from the industry’s post-Covid reset and the challenging global macroeconomic conditions.”

Alban Dechelotte, CEO, G2 Esports: “Overall, brand partnership markets have been very slow and low, with discussions lasting far longer than in the previous years.

“Also, some tough changes from publishers around future investment in esports — sadly Epic’s changes to Rocket League resulted in us pulling out of the scene for now.” 

Faisal Binhomran, Chief Product Officer, Esports World Cup Foundation: “The EWC’s biggest challenge was also our biggest achievement: bringing together the best games and clubs in the world on one platform. 

“With more than 20 individual tournaments to schedule and to deliver on our promise to have the best players in the world participate, we needed to closely align with our publishing partners to create an offering that met the needs of all involved.”

Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and Managing Director, NODWIN Gaming: One of our biggest challenges was navigating the complex regulatory environment surrounding gaming and esports in India. 

“Adapting to evolving policies while ensuring uninterrupted execution of events and initiatives required extensive coordination with stakeholders, strategic foresight and flexibility.”

Marco Mereu, Founder and CEO, M80: “Despite another astounding run through VALORANT Ascension Americas this year, we failed to qualify, losing in the Grand Finals for the second year in a row. It was heartbreaking to come so close to Ascension again, but we still have a lot to show for it…”

“The journey is difficult, but we’ll be back for more in 2025.”

Skyler Johnson, Founder, Paper Crowns: “Ultimately, as the agency grows, the challenge is scaling efficiently without diluting our core values, nor the personalized high-touch service our clients have come to expect. Maintaining the agility of a non-’skyscraper agency’, while managing an increasing amount of larger accounts and complex projects requires deliberate process improvements and strong leadership.

Craig Levine, co-CEO, ESL FACEIT Group: “EFG has been a believer in mobile esports for some time, but the enthusiasm we saw this year across the Snapdragon Pro Series was unprecedented. In particular, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang community in Southeast Asia came out to support our Season 6 Open Qualifier, which became the most-watched open-level MLBB tournament of all time with 830,000 viewers.”

Daniel Finkler, CEO, BIG: “The mobile esports scene once again stood out in 2024. Its rapid growth in emerging markets continues to highlight the accessibility and scalability of mobile gaming. Titles in this space achieved record-breaking viewership and engagement globally. 

“Additionally, Fortnite remains a cultural phenomenon, seamlessly blending competitive gameplay with live entertainment events that captivate audiences worldwide.”

Animesh ‘8Bit Thug’ Agarwal, Co-Founder, S8UL: “In the Indian esports ecosystem, what stood out in 2024 was the growth into multiple titles beyond BGMI, including Pokémon Unite. S8UL’s own Pokémon Unite team made significant headway, performing exceptionally well on both national and international stages.”

Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and Managing Director, NODWIN Gaming: “The BGMI esports scene has been exceptionally impressive in 2024. Its reintroduction sparked a wave of excitement, bringing together massive audiences, high-profile sponsors and well-organised leagues.” 

Alban Dechelotte, CEO, G2 Esports: “In 2024, we have been lucky to join the VALORANT VCT ecosystem. We love the balance of regional leagues and international events as well as the opportunity to offer in-game content to the G2 Army.”

Skyler Johnson, Founder, Paper Crowns: There are a lot to me that stand out, from the VALORANT ecosystem Riot is creating to the CS community and its stacked event calendar…

“My bias to the Call of Duty community will always be there and I think the game itself offers a solid ranked play, which I hope leads to more competitive esports trickle-down.

Robbie Douek, CEO, BLAST: “I’d be lying if I said I had a favourite ecosystem — each brings its own unique flavour to the industry. That said, I have to give a nod to Riot Games and League of Legends Worlds.

“We joke about it because they always seem to clean up at the awards we are up for, but honestly, there’s a reason for that. Worlds is a masterpiece of an event — it’s the kind of tentpole production that sets the bar for what esports can achieve.”

Hicham Chahine, CEO, Ninjas in Pyjamas: “The shift away from women and marginalised genders in esports, which is sad to see. There are a lot less marginalised gender tournaments for esports teams and players. 

“This has disappointed me the most, it felt like we had such an upward trajectory with investment from several ecosystem stakeholders within the space — but I feel across the industry focus on marginalised genders within the pro-competitive scene has gone down.”

Nicolas Maurer, Co-Founder and CEO, Team Vitality: “I’d say that overall Rocket League is seeing a downward trend this year. That’s not in terms of public interest or our excitement for the game, but rather the way the professional scene is organised. Obviously, we’re not alone in feeling this way, it seems to be a general public sentiment, which is quite frustrating because Rocket League is a fantastic game with a ton of potential.”

Skyler Johnson, Founder, Paper Crowns: “This one is a bit harder for me because our community is very up and down, so being ‘not impressed’ is something that I don’t really think about as much. I would like to see more publishers and tournament organisers focus on community engagement tools and I know just the agency to help with that!”

The Esports World Cup, a multi-title esports event, has announced Overwatch 2 as the latest title for the 2025 edition of the competition.

The hero shooter developed by Blizzard Entertainment returns to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia next year after featuring in the inaugural 2024 Esports World Cup.

Last year’s Overwatch 2 competition at the Esports World Cup peaked at 100,000 viewers, a decrease when compared to the Overwatch Champions Series 2024 Major which took place in late May and early June. The event saw 16 teams competing for a $1.05m (~£823,022) prize pool and points contributing to the Club competition, which featured a further $20m (~£15.6m) in prize money.

It’s unclear if the competition will form part of the 2025 Overwatch Champions Series, Overwatch 2’s esports ecosystem operated by tournament organiser and Esports World Cup partner ESL FACEIT Group. 2025 will be the second year of the circuit, which now includes a promotion and relegation structure to provide teams in the FACEIT League with opportunities to enter the regular season.

Overwatch 2 is the 12th title featured at the 2025 Esports World Cup. It joins EAFC 25, Call of Duty: Warzone, Free Fire, and more on its growing roster of tournaments with more likely to be announced soon.

Outside of announcing games appearing at the Esports World Cup, the Esports World Cup Foundation continues to invest in the project. This month, the organiser of the event expanded its partner programme to 40 organisations with the aim of attracting organisations from China, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and MENA.

The Esports World Cup Foundation remains a topic of controversy from industry stakeholders due to its ties with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. Discussions on the Kingdom’s human rights record remain as it keeps expanding its presence within esports, entertainment, and sports industries.

The Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), the tournament organiser behind the Esports World Cup, has announced a multi-year partnership agreement with the Call of Duty League.

The deal will see EWCF commit to the growth of Call of Duty’s esports ecosystem for the upcoming three years. This includes the league extending its 2025 competitive calendar into August for the Esports World Cup, which makes its return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next summer.

Financial terms surrounding the partnership were not disclosed.

The Esports World Cup previously announced that both Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Black Ops would be included in its 2025 game lineup.

The latter will replace Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, which saw Atlanta FaZe walk out victorious. Alongside the other 15 participating teams, the Call of Duty: MW3 tournament offered a combined prize pool of $1.8m (~£1,41m). Call of Duty: Warzone, instead, featured a $1m (~£0,78m) prize pool, with Team Falcons coming out victorious.

In 2024, Call of Duty was the last franchise to be featured in the Esports World Cup, increasing the total number of events to 22. Other titles at this year’s event included Counter-Strike, League of Legends, and Honor of Kings, which has also been confirmed for the 2025 edition.

Despite the prize pool and incredibly competitive environment, the EWC has generated controversy from sections of the esports industry due to the support of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. The Kingdom has been heavily investing in esports as it looks to become a hub for the industry, but discussions surrounding its human rights record remain.

Fabian Scheuermann, Chief Games Officer, Esports World Cup Foundation, commented on the deal: “Call of Duty is one of the most celebrated games on the planet and has captivated global communities for generations.

“Together, we are creating new opportunities for players, from grassroots to elite competitors, to rise through the ranks and compete on the world’s biggest stage. As we continue to grow the largest-ever celebration of esports excellence, we look forward to welcoming all players into a life-changing global event, one that connects players, games, fans, and the entire esports industry under one banner.”

In late November the Overwatch Champions Series (OWCS) concluded its first competitive year at Dreamhack Stockholm 2024, with Saudi organisation Team Falcons walking out victorious.

Recording a peak viewership of 159,918, via Esports Charts, the competition’s grand final attracted almost the same number of online spectators as last year’s Overwatch League playoffs (157,689). However, despite viewership being similar, the two ecosystems could not be any different.

Launched in 2024, the Overwatch Champions Series’ defining feature is that it is an open ecosystem, a radical change from the Overwatch League’s franchised model. Teams had no guaranteed spots in the circuit and, theoretically, a group of five players had a chance to climb the ladder, get to the majors and, ultimately, qualify for the world finals.

For 2025 the OWCS will take place over three stages and international live events across North America, EMEA and Asia, with promotion and relegation events placed throughout. The first stage will begin with an open qualifier in January, followed by a regular season featuring the top 8-12 teams (depending on the region). The playoffs will qualify select teams for international events. Meanwhile, the new promotion and relegation tournament will see the lowest-performing OWCS teams defend their spots against the scene’s top up-and-coming talent.

“To me, the biggest benefit of the new [OWCS] system is getting back to the original intent of what esports is as a philosophy: that it should be all about skill.” Sean Miller, Head of Overwatch Esports, told Esports Insider.

“The OWCS has the best players, no matter where they come from: if you’re the best at Overwatch, it means you can compete on this stage in front of this crowd.”

The state of Overwatch esports was at an all-time low when the Overwatch League ended. Franchise teams lamented constant losses and frequent revenue misses. Moreover, it wasn’t guaranteed that a new circuit would rise so quickly in its place.

However, OWCS being run by an established tournament organiser in ESL FACEIT Group saw the ecosystem quickly gain traction. The shift to an open system was well received with several teams eagerly waiting to compete in Blizzard’s new FPS esports ecosystem.

When asked whether there have been any notable milestones for Overwatch 2’s new ecosystem, Miller highlighted the quick turnaround between OWL’s closure and OWCS’ creation. “Launching the OWCS in such a short amount of time, about three months after the 2023 Grand Final, was crucial to us, and doing so in a way that was high quality.

“The second achievement is the culmination of all this work: the World Finals of this past weekend,” he added.

“This was a foundation-setting year, but also somewhat of an experiment. We’ve been testing and learning, constantly iterating and being able to see all this culminate at the World Finals is a major milestone, because it’s given us a good indication that what we’re doing is working, that people are excited and that there’s still real passion.”

Many aspects of Overwatch’s esports structure changed due to the open ecosystem. Teams that made it to the finals, such as NTMR (Nightmare), were created from nothing six months before the finals, a radical shift from having the same 20 teams year over year.

“It’s all about skill, any group of people can get together and make it to the top. There are no barriers. You just have to win,” said Miller. “The open ecosystem is more integrated into the community, and our objective is to continue to refine this model building on this year’s foundations.”

Whilst speaking to Miller during the OWCS finals, the topic of sustainability was brought up. To support organisations investing in the circuit, the 2025 season will see the establishment of a new partnership programme. Successful applicants will receive a portion of the proceeds from crowdfunded in-game team packs, alongside other benefits.

“I think the team partner programme is a great way to continue to iterate on this ecosystem at large and support our teams. We’ve definitely seen interest already, and we’re positive about all the excitement we’re seeing”. 

He continued: “We have a set of criteria that we’ll be assessing teams on over the coming weeks: we want the best and the biggest organisations, the ones that can really make an impact on this ecosystem and support player development through the year.”

The Head of Overwatch Esports also noted that the programme has received support from Blizzard, with artists making special in-game skins. “It’s a lot of hands and a lot of people that need to come together to make something like this work. We want to be able to see this ecosystem grow and work with the teams to do just that.”

OWCS’ plans for the future are ambitious and have one guiding principle: “Expanding our footprint,” Miller underlined.

In 2025, this will come in the form of more competition stages, more live events, more sponsors and more broadcasting. “Expanding the footprint of the ecosystem means making it more consistent and easier to follow: having fewer teams in each circuit, at least in North America for example, would also make everything more simple. 

“Fans would get to know the players, see those storylines come to fruition and have more opportunities to go to live events.”

According to Miller, the key to its live event success this year has been integrating the OWCS with notable esports festival company, and ESL FACEIT Group subsidiary, DreamHack.

“The opportunity to be at DreamHack has been invaluable,” he said.

“There we found a passionate Overwatch esports fan base together with the DreamHack one, and we saw the power of that. In Dallas, we sold out and there were so many people just around the Overwatch Champion Series major areas that the second day they added 500 seats just to accommodate all of the people that we’re interested.”

However, Miller did go on to add: “We still don’t know if the best thing for us is to partner with an existing event or try to build our own, I will say that it can depend a lot on a number of factors like finding the best location.” 

With the introduction of crowdfunded prize money through cosmetic bundles, a partnership programme and multiple live events around the world, the OWCS wants to be an ecosystem that’s easy to follow and easy to compete in.

“We want to make it as straightforward for the teams as possible,” Miller concluded. “Streamline the process and move quickly so that, at least one way or another, teams have some clarity and we’ll be able to move forward as we head into January. This year has been an amazing start, and I just can’t wait to see us come together and help the ecosystem grow next year.”

Despite not reaching the Overwatch League’s top viewing figures, the OWCS has completed a strong inaugural season with a lot of team participation and good viewership. Looking further into the future, with the game’s developers running six vs six tests could once again create a huge shift to the Overwatch 2 esports landscape – if these tests go further.

Nevertheless, next year’s season will have more broadcast matches, more live events and more opportunities for stakeholders involved to make investments in the scene worthwhile.