Last year, women’s esports evolved and adapted to maintain its position within the hectic industry. Viewership diversified, and although prize pools and average viewership is on an upwards trend, far fewer female esports events were hosted in 2025. Exploring the results of the year through a data-driven lens, Esports Charts takes a deep dive into the shifting landscape of the 2025 female esports scene, featuring the most-watched teams, games, events and much more.
Following explosive growth between 2021-2023, 2024 saw things calm down and Valorant and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang make up over 90% of all viewership for female esports. The esports scene kept evolving in 2025, as new series emerged, events expanded, and new champions rose on the global stage. Although watch time for female esports dipped slightly, the broader picture is more nuanced.
Female esports viewership in 2025 insights & statistics
2025 marked a 7.9% decrease in total watch time for female esports. Comparing data with 2024, one clear trend emerges: a decreasing amount of tournaments held. Last year, the female esports industry hosted 52% fewer female events, following a similar 20% drop a year before. Despite the scene hosting fewer events and recording far less broadcasting time, average concurrent viewership increased for 2025.
Although the number of female esports events declined this year, the tournaments that did take place delivered record-breaking prize pools and audiences. In particular, several MLBB events became the most-watched female esports tournaments in years. Viewership stayed strong despite falling broadcasting time and events, highlighting a growing interest from esports fans in female esports.
Valorant previously held a much larger share of the female esports industry, and while the Game Changers series has been revolutionary and opened many eyes to the advantages of an officially-supported circuit for female competitors, viewership has been waning. Compared to previous years, 2025 marked one of the poorest results for the circuit, with fewer viewers tuning in both at peak for exciting grand finals, as well as on average throughout the year.
Despite the general downwards trend for watch time, Valorant managed other impressive feats with its female esports events. The esports title posted a Media Value of $1.88M for its official Valorant Game Changers Championship 2025 — the highest MV of any female tournament this year. On the other hand, MLBB continues to be wildly popular, now trailing closely behind Valorant in total watch time. At the Esports World Cup MLBB women’s finals, almost 470,000 Peak Viewers, MLBB reached the highest female esports peak of the year.
Counter-Strike 2 also managed to record strong viewership results, despite the closure of the long-standing ESL impact series. The tactical shooter actually increased its watch time year-on-year, with the send-off for the women’s series helping it record its best result in a long time.
Arena of Valor enjoyed a rather surprising jump this year, leaping ahead of League of Legends. The title — along with three other games — benefitted from the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, a multi-game series hosted by the Olympic Council of Asia. It is known across Asia as one of the continent’s most prestigious titles for players to chase in a national team, and the 33rd Southeast Asian Games - Women received almost a quarter-million concurrent viewers, setting a new female esports record for Arena of Valor.
Unsurprisingly, the VCT Game Changers topped the industry as the most-watched female esports event series of the year. This Valorant circuit generates all Valorant female esports viewership as the official path for these players, and with Valorant’s position as one of female esports’ leading games, it was only to be expected Game Changers would land at the top here.
Filling out the hotly-contested podium places, the Esports World Cup generated 3.78M HW for its female esports content, coming out just ahead of the SEA Games. The EWC generated its female esports watch time entirely through the EWC x MLBB Women's Invitational 2025. Alongside the VCT Game Changers series, the Esports World Cup and SEA Games — and their MLBB tournaments — were the premiere sources of female esports action this year, with others lagging significantly behind.
The ESL Impact League, which has unfortunately now ceased hosting matches, enjoyed a slight uptick in viewership for its final iteration. The series, which has long been the face of female competition in Counter-Strike, was closed by the organizers due to financial instability. The series was able to go out on a high-note, enjoying a boost to viewership and remaining one of the top series of the year.
The IeSF World Championship snatched up the final spot on this top 5, an especially popular competition in Asia. The world championship had previously hosted multiple titles, but it only hosted a MLBB tournament for 2025, leaving it little chance to generate a significant amount of watch time.
Imperial Valkyries is the most-watched female esports team of 2025, having recorded over 2.32M Hours Watched. The Brazilian team had all eyes on them when they were invited to a couple of top-tier events alongside male competitors. These games were watched by hundreds of thousands of fans concurrently, making headlines as one of the most memorable moments of CS2 esports for the year. Thanks to the huge following for their games against teams like NAVI, Imperial Valkyries were one of the more popular Counter-Strike rosters of the year.
Imperial Valkyries’ team viewership reflects events the team participated in, including open events such as IEM Katowice 2025. The viewership for these events are naturally not included in other parts of this female esports report.
Taking up the middle of our leaderboard here, Valorant was represented by three teams, two from the Southern side of the Americas and one representative from the North. MIBR GC remains hugely popular thanks to a passionate audience for Valorant esports in Brazil and their established reputation with the Valorant scene, but it was Team Liquid Brazil who claimed the Game Changers 2025 championship for their country. Team Liquid defeated Shopify Rebellion Gold, reigning champions, to claim the title, in an exciting back-and-forth match that went to the final map.
Last but definitely not least, Team Vitality competes in MLBB with a female roster, who have dominated the global scene throughout 2025. The roster claimed first place at the MLBB Women’s Invitational 2025 in dominant fashion, claiming the trophy with a 100% win-rate, becoming the first team in MLBB history to achieve this feat at an international women’s event. Vitality also tried their hand competing in the MDL Indonesia, the tier-two official circuit for all genders in their home country.
Female esports 2025 prize pool & viewership distribution
Despite 2025 hosting far fewer tournaments than previous years, the total prize pool for the female esports industry reached new heights this year. At $3.3M, prize winnings are at the highest they have ever been for female esports athletes, largely thanks to the expansion of the international multi-game events.
The MENA region was the largest contributor to the global prize pot, contributing 20% of the total $3.3M largely thanks to Saudi Arabia and the Esports World Cup. The Saudi esports series is well-known for its unbelievable prize pots, and the tournament series launched the country to the top of global esports prize pools. Europe lagged slightly behind Asia and the Americas, which were led by South Korea and the United States, respectively.
Turning towards the distribution of watch time across languages and platforms, TikTok and YouTube both increased their shares of the total, 7.5% and 10% over last year’s share, respectively. Now, Twitch and YouTube are roughly equal in their shares of female esports viewership.
Language-wise, English remained the top performer, however, its overall share shrank slightly. This was also true for Portuguese, French, Japanese, and many other languages in 2025; the biggest winners of the year were Indonesian, Bahasa Malaysia, and Vietnamese, all of which increased their viewership share thanks to mobile gaming titles.
While fewer female esports events were hosted throughout 2025, fans remain engaged and interested in these tournaments. Viewership increased enough to offset the 50%+ drop in tournaments hosted, with the industry having diversified compared to 2024, when Valorant and MLBB generated over 90% of viewership. Now, more games are contributing to the industry’s total, building a more stable scene for viewership in the future.
Female esports faced difficulties in 2025, like the dissolution of ESL Impact and waning viewership for the Valorant Champions Tour, however, many statistics and metrics show a positive development for this industry sector. Prize pools continue to rise, new events are coming in 2026, and female esports is looking to continue on the positive developments of 2025.
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