Ranking of the biggest esports games in 2024: most played and competitive

“Gaming is bigger than Hollywood” – Justin Kan.

Gaming is an incredibly saturated market, with more and more games releasing every day, with each one competing for players’ attention and money. In such a landscape, it can often feel difficult to know the games to which you ought to dedicate yourself. 

The Biggest eSports Games Every Gamer Should Know: most played

The reason that eSports games make a ton of sense to pursue is that the friendly – or not so friendly – feeling of competition that playing against others induces augments replayability; increases the extent to which you want to play just “one more game”. So, whilst I’d like to warn you that these games are all incredibly addictive, here’s a list of the biggest eSports games every gamer should know right now.

Dota 2 

The first game of the list, Dota 2, is what’s known as a MOBA, where MOBA stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, basically denoting that the gameplay necessitates that you battle other players – console players or otherwise – in an arena, and Dota 2 is one of the biggest and best of them.

Having released in 2013, Dota 2 is one of the most popular MOBAs, and its biggest USP is arguably the fact that every character is available straight away, so you don’t have to spend time or money unlocking whichever characters appeal to you, making it one of the best competitive eSports games for those with extremely limited time on their hands. A lot of MOBAs are also free-to-play, but deprive you of some characters in order to induce you to devote either time or money to unlocking those options.

Like a lot of MOBAs, this game is top-down, meaning that you’re playing with what’s essentially a bird’s eye view. It has an undeniable beauty to it, and many love its artstyle.

Some detractors cite its difficult as an issue, arguing that a game like League of Legends actually has a lower skill-ceiling. Whatever the case, it’s definitely worth a go for anyone that wants to engage in competitive play without having to worry about spending time to unlock options.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

CS:GO: Global Offensive – or CS:GO – initially released in 2014, and is considered one of the most successful first-person shooters of all time. It is team-based – you are part of one team, and you attempt to defeat the other – and is considered one of the best eSports games ever made, with its real-time strategy elements blending with its adrenaline-inducing gunplay to feel like an inordinately exciting eSports. Its brown and beige artstyle will not be for everyone, but the violence it allows for is its own reward, with its sequel, CS:GO 2, improving it in every respect.

Whether you play as a Terrorist or as one of the Counter-Terrorists, you are bound to have tons of fun with Valve’s incredible eSport. 

Fortnite

Developed by Epic Games, the developers of Unreal Engine (and made within said engine), Fortnite is what’s known as a Battle Royale game, a genre named after a 2000 film in which a set of ninth grade students have to fight one another to survive – last one left standing.

Build defenses, and shoot your enemies dead – with various other mechanics that come and go as the game is iterated upon, Fortnite is perennially popular, and has a younger audience than many of the games on our list. You start off as one of 100 players, and fight to survive. An exciting and addictive game, with a finger on the pulse of meme culture, Fortnite is simultaneously fun, funny and frustrating, but it’s definitely worth at least a few goes as one of the best eSports of 2024.

League of Legends

“It’s a good game. Just disable the chat” – Ylissian, reddit.com.

League of Legends is most often compared to Dota 2, with many debating which is the best, and for what reason. Arguably, the best thing about getting into League of Legends – becoming a player, and therefore a fan – is the fact of their eSports scene, in the sense that their tournaments tend to have a lot more fanfare, and might generally be considered to be better produced.

If you get into watching LoL championships, you can spend hours in a day watching old tournament footage, and then catching up with what’s going on live. Developed by Riot Games, this top-down MOBA has more playable characters than Dota 2, and is extremely culturally relevant. Though both it and Dota 2 are generally considered to have fairly toxic chats, it’s perfectly possible to mute whilst playing and just enjoy the experience of climbing the ranks.

Valorant

Also made by Riot Games, Valorant can be compared to League of Legends in the sense that it’s also generally a 5v5, but Valorant differs in the sense that it is a first-person tactical shooter. Valorant has a beautiful artstyle, with its characters being iconically realized, and it has quickly become one of the most popular eSports there is. 

StarCraft II

Renowned for the high APM (actions per minute) that it requires, StarCraft II is one of Blizzard’s games, and though Blizzard have encountered controversies of late, they were, at one time, incredibly well-renowned, and games like Starcraft were the reason why. A real-time strategy game, the goal is to destroy all of your opponent’s buildings through constructing your own and utilizing your units more effectively than your opponents do.

A surprisingly addictive game, this is a game that includes fog of war to make this a game of incomplete information, and despite the fact that this game released around fourteen years ago, this game still boasts a huge playerbase, and is a hugely popular game that is massively fun to engage in.

The game is being actively discussed on reddit and as one user says: “StarCraft 1 has a classic campaign that shouldn’t be skipped imo. SC2’s is great in its own way.”.

Overwatch

Overwatch II is a massively colorful game, aesthetically-speaking, with characters with massive personalities. The goal is to win the majority of the rounds, and this Blizzard game is one of the biggest eSports games on this list. Every popular eSports game must necessarily be fun to play and replay, and this video game is no exception, with people loving its fast pace, and the ridiculous plays that are possible. With Overwatch 2 being free-to-play, it’s a massively fun and addictive game that’s well worth a go. 

Arena of Valor

Yet another MOBA, Arena Of Valor is one of the few games on our list that is not playable on PC. Whilst League of Legends, for example, is reported by activeplayer.io to have a monthly player count of 150 million, Arena of Valor has a player count that is closer to 15 million, but it is still a massive game, and as phones get better and better, MOBAs designed for phones will continue to grow. Arena of Valor’s artstyle is beautiful, perhaps evoking an arcade slightly more than League of Legend’s does, and this is definitely worth a download. 

Rocket League

Developed by Psyonix, this is a game in which you operate a car with rockets strapped to it, and play soccer, using that vehicle to try to score. It’s an incredible game: it is fun, but some plays you will execute will have certain beautiful arcs to them, as you watch your car lift off gracefully, and gently somersault the ball into the back of the net.

As a result, this is a super fun one to play alongside people, because the goal is as simple as soccer’s, given that the goal is the same as soccer’s, given that this game is a permutation of soccer: get the ball into the back of the net. Your friends and loved ones might not understand certain strategies you might be employing with respect to your aerial acrobatics, but the game is strangely beautiful and insanely adrenaline-inducing, and it’s available to play on almost every platform. 

Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0

“There’s no bigger gaming franchise on the console than ‘Call of Duty’ – Emmett Shear. 

The Call of Duty games have been a mainstay for an unbelievably long time. The original Call of Duty released back in 2003, and a surprising number of releases within the franchise have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successfully.

It wasn’t necessarily a surprise when the developers announced a Battle Royale, given the extent to which the developers are obviously clued into the zeitgeist, and this is a surprisingly good one. Combining what makes COD great with what makes Battle Royales great, this is an excellent game with plenty to offer, and is well worth a go. 

Conclusion

New games are, of course, releasing all the time, meaning that there’s something for everyone out there: no matter what you like, the world of gaming has got you covered, with a plethora of games to join the community of. There really is something for everyone. 

The specificity of gaming has reached a tipping point: much like gambling, gaming is a medium that is sometimes considered oversaturated. However, the same con – that gaming is oversaturated – is also its biggest pro, and what is so amazing for lovers of games: it’s the excitement that overwhelms more than just the player. After all, the gaming industry has long since grown to the global dimensions of cybersports. Where everyone can not only play, but also bet and win money. Particular gamblers, especially from Canada, actively follow the success of their favorite gamers and make the right bets in the most popular tournaments. And Canada’s Best Bookmakers by MightyTips are always happy to offer their users pleasant bonuses and ever-changing promotions, spurring interest and excitement.

Here are some of the top reasons to enter the eSports iGaming world right now: 

1. Competition spikes adrenaline, making eSports games a low-stakes way of feeling a sense of fun and fear; 
2. The eSports market brings with it insanely collaborative communities for you to become a part of; and
3. Getting good can mean millions of dollars of prize money won at an eSports world cup, and not getting good just means having fun with friends. 

Whatever level you reach, and whatever you do, I hope you have tons of fun exploring these new games, and good luck and keep gaming 😉