Esports Games in 2020 – What’s Ahead for Gamers!

Esports have a solid year in 2019, with an all-time high prize pool in The International (Dota 2) reaching $34,300,000 and the semifinals between SKT vs G2 on Worlds (League of Legends) set a new viewership record for most-watched esports event of all time. There were 2.5 million peak viewers in their final game.

But we know Dota 2 and League of Legends for a long time, the main question is what are the other games that are coming into the scene.

We collected the most important titles into one “map”.

We call it simply the “Esports map”

Now let’s see some categorization.

Esports Games by Popularity

According to Twitch viewership numbers collected by Newzoo in 2019 October, the most popular games are the following.

In this table, we can only see esports content watched by fans. This is why Fortnite isn’t in the top 3. October isn’t a typical month from esports point of view, strongly favoring League of Legends and CS:GO, but we can see some of the most important titles.

One new phenomenon is that mobile games are becoming stronger also from esports point of view. Supercell will most likely to announce big mobile-only tournaments in 2020. Their game Brawl Stars enters into the maturity state of it’s life curve and affects a huge number of players. Fortnite chapter II just released, generated a huge hype and Riot games announced several important upcoming titles like Legends of Runeterra (a Hearthstone competitor), also on Blizzcon we received confirmation about the development of Diablo 4.

Game Categories

If we want further structure in these games, we can categorize them by genre. Between 2015-2019 we only have one new genre “Battle Royale”, which was a sub-genre of FPS before.

1. 1. MOBA Games (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) – The most popular game genre in esports. These games featuring many heroes picked individually and controlled by one player, at the end of the day a team consists of 5 players with 5 selected heroes. MOBAs are team focused games. The unique viewer experience for fans generated by the fog of war, where only viewers know what is going really on the map. The two teams are in lack of information in terms where the enemy team is located. The ultimate goal is for both teams to destroy the enemy’s main structure.
      Games: League of Legends, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, Smite

   2. FPS Games (First-Person Shooters) – This game genre gives the most realistic gaming experience when controlling a character. Focus on fight from a first-person view , and usually gives a team-based gaming experience.
      Games: Counter-Strike GO, Overwatch

   3. BR Games (Battle Royale) – Previously it was a subgenre of FPS, but now it stepped forward into a separate genre. The genre characteristic is that many gamers step into the same arena and only one could survive at the end. The scores separated by how long they could survive in the constantly decreasing arena.
      Games: Fortnite, Player unknown’s Battlegrounds

   4. CCG (Collectible Card Game) – This game category is dedicated for card collector type of people, who like to collect and combine cards and create new strategies for their game.
      Games: Hearthstone, Legends of Runeterra, Magic: The Gathering Arena, Gwent

   5. RTS (Real-Time Strategy Games) – The classic strategic genre, where usually two players are having a battle against each other, while they controlling multiple units. The basic concept behind these games is gathering resources and producing units.
      Games: Starcraft II, Warcraft III

   6. Simulation Games – There are many sub-genres like auto simulation or sport simulation games, which models a real-life sport in order to put the player into the exact situation as a real-life sportsman.
      Games: FIFA 20, Rocket League, F1 2019

   7. Mobile Games – Mobile games are emerging very rapidly in the last 3 years. A lot of live-action, FPS and Mobe games were developed, which have a unique game style. From the graphical side of experience, these games are nearly close to PC. Their common points are simple game controls, scalable game content for small screens and to give you quick fun moments.
      Games: Brawl Stars, Clash Royale, PUBG Mobile, Arena of Valor, Mobile Legends, Vainglory, Fortnite Mobile

What do we expect in 2020?

In 2019 we clearly see that the game industry made a move. We don’t just speak about the new titles, but also about strategy. We expected a small shrink in the esports scene, not happened. CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends are stronger than ever from esports point of view, even if we know that the active player numbers are getting smaller and smaller.

The importance of influencers are in focus between 2018 and 2019, we have understood that they have strong impact when we are talking about new game or platform releases (see the examples of Apex Legends and Mixer). The effect of influencers are only able to create a temporary hype, esports has an effect of generating long run fan bases.

We also learned that fans are stick to games, the core fan base of CS:GO, Dota 2 and League of Legends is now 30 years old. We are getting older, and this generation has the ability to pay for game content. Interesting future for sure.

The game industry will provide some serious titles like:

• Cyberpunk 2077
• The Last of Us Part II
• Minecraft Dungeons (mobile)
• Legends of Runeterra
• Phantasy Star Online

Maybe the next esports will be produced by these games’ mods. We will see.

Read more about esports business in the book “A Newborn Business: Esports” the latest edition released in 2019.