A Year of Transformation: Esports stakeholders reflect on 2024
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.
How would you define esports in 2024?
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.”
What was your biggest achievement in 2024?
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.”
What was your biggest challenge in 2024?
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.
Which esports scene impressed you the most in 2024?
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.”
Which esports scene impressed you the least in 2024?
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!”
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