Most popular esports in 2025: top 5 games right now

The most popular esports games in 2025 reign supreme at various league and non-league tournaments around the world, and it’s easy to see why. Most are free-to-play, lowering the entry requirements for millions of players and letting them into a world full of competitive gaming that could potentially give them a career in the future.

Yet, a range of factors make esports the most popular games. Emerging and existing trends could upend other titles, with brand-new genres entering certain tournaments that would have been unheard of in previous years. Games like Fortnite and PUBG are great examples of this.

However, if you’re new to esports, it could be a challenge to parse what classes are the most-viewed esports games, the most played esports games, and more. 

With this in mind, we’ve created a list of the top 5 esports games, arranged by player base, to lay all this out, as well as examine some of the most significant esports trends of 2025 so far.

League of Legends is a free-to-play MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) that lets you dive into 5v5 team battles, sprawled across huge maps that can only be won by one team.

Developed by Riot Games and released for PC and Macs in 2009, players can use a variety of power-ups and Ability Power (AP) to alter battles in their favor. With over 100 million viewers having watched several tournaments since its debut, League of Legends still leads as the most viewed esports game from players and viewers alike.

New updates featuring game-balancing and content are regularly made available, keeping players’ interests engaged. These help make every match different in its own unique way, surprising players and millions of viewers, which is another reason why League of Legends is still one of the most played esports games in recent times. To many, this makes it the best esports game in the world; however, many of the games listed below would challenge that.

Valorant is a free-to-play first-person shooter (FPS), again developed by Riot Games, and released in 2020 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. The game pits players in a 5v5 match that lets them select a variety of Agents, such as Controllers, Duelists, Initiators, and Sentinels, all with their unique set of abilities to help each team win the match. Valorant follows similar concepts as League of Legends, which is likely why Riot Games has already experienced a lot of success from the game. It has become one of the most popular esports by viewership with over 1.3 million viewers tuning in to watch the Masters Bangkok 2025 Championship in March this year.

With constant support via monthly game patches and many competitive tournaments, Valorant is already an essential part of the esports industry, offering players a different take on the FPS genre than games like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty offer.

Fortnite, along with PUBG, are games that broke open the battle royale genre for esports and have dominated specific events since their respective releases in 2017. Yet it’s Fortnite that has reigned supreme, with the allure of earning skins and character models with new content updates, repeatedly drawing in new and existing players. Developed by Epic Games, it’s also made its mark in mobile esports, with it being made available on Android devices and making its return to Apple iPhones and iPads in some countries, thanks to new EU rules in 2024.

There were over 2.6 million viewers for the results of the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) Finals in 2024, and with plenty of events that can be viewed every week, Fortnite is a consistent presence in esports.

Counter-Strike 2 is the latest game in Valve’s FPS series, which began all the way back in 1999 and is still touted as one of the games that brought competitive gaming to the masses. Released in 2023 after much anticipation, Counter-Strike 2 has already become one of the most popular esports games, with dedicated tournaments like FRAG and PGL Astana bringing in over $4 million of prize money, as well as over 850,000 peak viewers at events such as BLAST Open.

With its fun gameplay and varied patches, as well as the ability to buy and equip items and skins via the Steam Workshop, Counter-Strike 2 looks set to be a staple of esports tournaments for years to come.

Developed by Valve and released in 2013 for PC, Mac, and Linux, Dota 2 is still one of the most popular esports games for several reasons. For those unaware, it’s a MOBA free-to-play strategy game that, like League of Legends, pits players in 5v5 matches across a huge map that requires a lot of strategic thinking and understanding of the game’s complex yet appealing dynamics to win the battles. 

Dota 2’s biggest esports event, The International, offered a prize pool in 2024 that surpassed $40 million for teams who took part, alongside two million viewers keeping track of the competition. This makes it definitively the highest-paid esports game on the circuit today.

With constant updates and an alluring game pass that also helps fund the prize pools at The International, it’s no surprise that Dota 2 ranks highly among esports games.

Trends and themes in esports have the potential to change at a faster rate than other sports. This can be due to patches that can change the gameplay balance in some titles, new maps and weapons to turn the tide during matches, or completely new games.

In 2025, some of the trending esports games like League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and Dota 2 continue to dominate the industry, thanks to their free-to-play model and millions of active players. Another aspect is the battle royale games, such as Fortnite and PUBG, allowing players to jump in and reign supreme as the winner out of 100 competitors, becoming some of the most famous esports games in recent years. Both of these games are still thriving, with new modes and new collaborations with creators, movies, and more happening almost every month.

Regarding emerging trends in esports, mobile gaming is already gaining traction, with Fortnite being made available back onto Apple’s ecosystem thanks to the company changing its rules in 2024, allowing others to create their own third-party stores. This has led to Fortnite’s developer, Epic Games, releasing its own in specific markets, with Fortnite available to play. Combined with the millions of Android handsets that also offer games like PUBG and Call of Duty: Mobile, mobile esports could become an even bigger market in the industry soon.

There are also other potential trends, such as augmented and virtual reality (VR) technologies, which could give way to immersive experiences beyond what a monitor can reproduce. For example, games like League of Legends and Dota could let players view the maps in VR or on a living room table through augmented reality glasses.

Ultimately, esports is constantly changing but growing quickly, with all kinds of emerging technology potentially giving way to new ways of playing the largest esports games in 2025.

Esports is an ever-changing industry. The trends are ever-changing, even if some of the most played esports games remain high in players’ most popular esports games lists.

That’s also without mentioning potential trends that could upend how we see the industry today. Technologies like VR, as well as mobile esports that are already growing, could change the business in ways we can’t imagine today.

Ultimately, with esports inevitably on course to be recognized as a sport, in part thanks to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) announcing the Olympic Esports Series for 2027, we will likely see the whole industry change soon, with new answers to the question ‘what are the biggest esports games?’