The biggest annual e-sports events by prize money and spectator numbers

E-sports are becoming increasingly popular and have really boomed in the last decade. Due to the increasing quality of the games and the ever more powerful hardware, e-sports titles such as League of Legends or Counter Strike have never been as much fun as they are today. This makes it all the more worthwhile to take a look at the biggest annual events. Attending these can be a real highlight for e-sports fans.

Riyadh Masters (Dota 2)

Many fans of traditional sports do not realise that Saudi Arabia is also playing an increasingly important role in e-sports. Just like in football, there has been huge investment recently, which has resulted in some of the biggest events of the year taking place in Saudi Arabia. Probably the best example of this is the Riyadh Masters. The third edition of the tournament will take place in July 2024, which will also be the final of the ESL Pro Tour and is therefore very important. According to rumours, the prize money this year will be five million US dollars. This would make the Riyadh Masters the biggest tournament of the year in terms of prize money.

As Saudi Arabia has only recently opened up to tourists, a visit to the tournament can be perfectly combined with a trip to the country's most important attractions. It is clear that there is a lot to see in Saudi Arabia, although it should also be mentioned that July is not a good time to visit due to the extremely high temperatures and that you should primarily stay in air-conditioned buildings. Temperatures reach highs of over 40 °C almost every day at this time of year!

League of Legends World Championship 2024

The League of Legends World Championship will be held in Germany (Berlin), France (Paris) and England (London) in 2024 and will take place from 25 September to 2 November. Given the geographical location, this tournament is ideal for a visit. Unfortunately, the particularly exciting rounds do not take place in Germany. If you want to experience the final of the League of Legends World Championship 2024, you will have to hop across the Channel and make your way to London. Nevertheless, it's worth the journey, as fans can expect world-class LoL action. It is particularly spectacular that the O2 Arena will serve as the venue. This arena is usually only reserved for the world's biggest stars and offers space for 20,000 spectators to watch the action live!

Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024

Attention Counter-Strike fans! You shouldn't miss the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024. This tournament has a prize pool of over 1.25 million US dollars and takes place in December. Interestingly, the tournament will be only the second major for Counter Strike 2 - the latest version of the legendary first-person shooter.

Those who are afraid of the long journey to faraway China can, as usual, use the usual streaming portals. As is typical for all major e-sports events, these offer a wide range of live streams to ensure that fans of all teams never miss an important moment. If you don't want to take out an expensive membership to access these streams, you should take a look at internet betting providers. These often offer registered customers the opportunity to follow the matches live on their own website. This is of course particularly interesting if you also want to place a few bets on the course of the matches.

eSports World Cup 2024

A whole 60 million US dollars in prize money will be up for grabs at this year's eSports World Cup 2024. The event will take place from 28 June to 25 August 2024 in Riyadh and comprises 19 different disciplines, including Fortnite, Mobile Legends, Counter Strike, PUBG and League of Legends. With so many games and well-known teams taking part in this event, it quickly becomes clear how important this event is for e-sports fans. This is not only true from a sporting perspective, but also in terms of the exchange and strengthening of cohesion within the scene. Many other tournaments are limited exclusively to a single game and therefore fail to bring different communities together.

The eSports World Cup is part of Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" and will take place in state-of-the-art new buildings that are world-leading and take the professionalism of virtual sports to a whole new level. Of course, spectators will also be treated to a whole new level of entertainment, so it may be worth travelling to Riyadh yourself. However, summer is also not a good time to travel to Saudi Arabia for the eSports World Cup. However, this disadvantage is mitigated when you consider that the events take place in air-conditioned buildings anyway.