Which esports games have struggled to grow since the COVID boom?

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Esports has been on an upward trajectory, and 2024 marked a milestone as the industry achieved its first year of overall viewership growth since the lockdowns. The COVID-19 era brought an unprecedented surge in interest in livestreaming and esports, with 2020, and especially 2021, emerging as record-breaking years for audience engagement across several major games.

Fast forward to 2024, and the landscape is evolving yet again. Some of the biggest titles are hitting new records, while others from the pre-2020 era are enjoying a revival. Yet, a handful of games remain stuck in the past, struggling to reclaim their former glory. With that in mind, Esports Charts takes a closer look at the games that haven’t rebounded since the pandemic, the ones that peaked even before COVID, and the select few that continue to thrive in the post-lockdown world.

Which games haven’t expanded their audiences since the COVID era?

By the close of last year, Esports Charts tracked over 100 games that hosted either esports tournaments or major competitive streamer events, titles that can broadly be classified within the esports ecosystem. Remarkably, over half of these games achieved their peak viewership milestones after the COVID lockdowns. Among them, 2024 stood out as a record-breaking year for many. Leading the charge were League of Legends, Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, and also Brawl Stars, which hit an impressive milestone of over one million concurrent viewers during its year-end event.

The majority of peak viewership milestones were achieved during 2020-2021, a period that was both fruitful and challenging for the esports industry. While viewership for major events soared, tournaments were often constrained by strict limitations. These included mandatory health protocols for players and some events even staged in empty arenas, entirely without live audiences.

Counter-Strike and Dota 2 are among the most popular titles, with 2021 standing as their most successful year to date. This success came after the highly anticipated return of their flagship tournaments: the Majors and The International, respectively. In 2020, amid global lockdowns and widespread uncertainty, Valve decided to take a cautious approach, postponing their events and leaving the spotlight on online tournaments hosted by third-party organizers. After more than a year without in-person events, the audience was eager for the return of top-tier LAN tournaments, which sparked an extraordinary level of excitement.

Moreover, the record-breaking viewership for PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and The International 10 (curiously, both tournaments almost matched in viewership) was greatly influenced by the strong showings of teams from Eastern Europe/CIS. In Sweden, Natus Vincere clinched the victory, marking the first time a team from the region had won since 2017. Meanwhile, The International in Bucharest featured an incredible Cinderella story as Team Spirit emerged as champions, becoming the first team from the region to take the title since NAVI's 2011 win.

Did you know?

Prior to the Russia-Ukraine war, the CIS esports community was largely unified, with both Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking audiences closely intertwined. Most tournaments were cast in Russian, and even Ukrainian casters and players predominantly used Russian for broadcasts to cater to the wider post-Soviet audience. This shared linguistic space allowed Russian-language streams to amass massive viewership figures across the entire CIS region, making it one of the most significant demographics for games like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike.

However, the war fundamentally changed this dynamic. The Ukrainian-speaking community has since separated from the Russian-speaking one, with a clear linguistic and cultural distinction emerging in the esports scene. Ukrainian tournaments and broadcasts now prioritize Ukrainian as the primary language, reflecting the broader shift in national identity. As a result, the once-monolithic Russian-language audience has fragmented, reducing its overall reach. This makes it highly likely that the record-breaking Russian-language viewership numbers from 2021 for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike will remain intact for the foreseeable future.

Counter-Strike and Dota 2 aren’t the only major titles whose golden days (so far) trace back to 2021. Halo is another standout example, capturing massive attention that year with the revival of the iconic HCS and the buzz surrounding the release of Halo Infinite. Similarly, 2021 was a breakout year for chess in livestreaming, with the World Chess Championship drawing its largest audience on record.

Then there’s Free Fire, a fascinating case. Although its peak also came in 2021, the reasons were unrelated to the pandemic. In 2022, the game (along with several other Chinese apps) was banned in India, one of its most vital esports markets. The game has been unable to make a comeback in the country, despite ongoing speculation. Some predict it could return in 2025, but for now, that’s little more than wishful thinking.

What's more is that Free Fire’s issues extend far beyond India. After winning the Esports Awards for Mobile Game of the Year in 2020-2021, the game has struggled to keep up with rivals like PUBG Mobile, Arena of Valor, and MLBB. The player base has also shrunk considerably in Southeast Asia, particularly in Thailand and Vietnam, where AoV now leads the pack. Additionally, Free Fire’s once-strong Spanish-speaking audience in Latin America has dwindled significantly: a few years ago, the game attracted impressive viewership from this region, but those days are now a distant memory.

Another particularly interesting example is PUBG Mobile. Despite remaining hugely popular and securing its place as the second-leading mobile esports title, no tournament has even approached the peak achieved by the PUBG Mobile Global Championship Season 0, which drew over 3.8 million concurrent viewers at its peak. Notably, this milestone wasn’t linked to the pandemic but was largely due to auto-played streams embedded in the game client.

Read more: PUBG Mobile Global Championship. How to attract millions of viewers with in-game gifts

The decline in esports viewership after COVID is not just tied to certain games but also affects entire demographics. During the pandemic, esports saw significant growth in countries like Spain and Italy. While there are still occasional record-breaking moments in these regions, the growth has slowed compared to the surge seen 3-4 years ago. The Italian livestreaming & esports scenes, in particular, were heavily impacted when lockdown restrictions eased, leading to a drop in viewership for major titles like Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Valorant.

Another, far more tragic example is Myanmar. Burmese speakers once represented a sizable and active audience in mobile esports, especially for MLBB. During the M2 World Championship, we tracked nearly a million viewers on local streams! However, the situation took a sharp turn after the military coup, which triggered massive protests that ultimately escalated into an ongoing civil war. Given the circumstances, it's no surprise that digital entertainment has become less of a priority.

Which games haven’t set new records since before the pandemic?

There’s no shortage of games in this category, even excluding those that have lost their relevance in the industry and didn’t host any notable events in 2024. Among the most striking examples is Overwatch, a game that once defined hero-based shooters, but has struggled to recapture its former glory. Its most successful tournament remains the inaugural season of the now-defunct Overwatch League, which generated tremendous hype and set high expectations for the franchise. While Blizzard introduced the Overwatch Contenders Series (OWCS) last year as a restructuring effort, its impact on viewership and community engagement is still unfolding.

Other titles that fall into this category include StarCraft II, which continues to see passionate support from its dedicated player base but lacks the mainstream appeal it once enjoyed during its heyday. Similarly, Hearthstone, a pioneer in the digital card game space, has struggled to compete with fresher rivals, and its esports presence has significantly diminished. 

Among mobile games, Clash Royale, Teamfight Tactics, and League of Legends: Wild Rift all saw fleeting success but haven’t managed to sustain the kind of momentum needed to break into the upper echelons of mobile esports viewership.

The stories of PUBG: Battlegrounds and Fortnite, however, stand out as exceptions in this group. Both games capitalized on the rise of the battle royale genre at just the right time, with their most iconic tournaments taking place in 2018-2019. What sets these two apart from the other titles is their resilience and adaptability. Unlike games that seem stuck in decline, PUBG: Battlegrounds and Fortnite came really close to matching their six-year-old records in 2024. This resurgence can be attributed to a strategic push to involve co-streamers and influencers in their event coverage, an approach that has injected new life into their competitive scenes. 

While neither PUBG nor Fortnite has fully returned to their peak, their recent performance demonstrates a vital lesson for the esports ecosystem: legacy games, even those that appear past their prime, can adapt to emerging trends and find ways to stay relevant. Both titles have embraced co-streaming and influencer-driven engagement as strategic tools to reinvigorate their competitive scenes, showing that innovation in audience reach can be just as important as innovation in gameplay.

This resilience highlights a broader trend within esports: success isn’t solely about maintaining record-breaking numbers but also about evolving alongside a shifting digital landscape. Whether it’s engaging new demographics or redefining broadcast strategies, the ability to adapt is what separates games that thrive from those that fade into obscurity.