Halfway through EWC 2025: Records, surprises & what’s next

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The Esports World Cup 2025 has already delivered a thrilling showcase of competitive gaming across multiple genres and platforms. Spanning four intense weeks, this global series has drawn millions of viewers worldwide and set new records in audience engagement. Since half of the series is already behind, we break down the standout moments, key trends, and what they mean for the future of competitive gaming.

In the first week, Dota 2 and Valorant dominated viewer attention, each accounting for 37% of total Esports World Cup watch time during that period. By week two, the spotlight had shifted to League of Legends, and later, mobile titles like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile took center stage. As the chart below shows, weekly watch time has generally been on an upward trajectory. That’s a notable shift from last year, when the first week drew the largest audience, followed by a steady decline.

Key Viewership Trends from Weeks 1–4

• The MLBB Mid Season Cup 2025 peaked at 3 million viewers, making it the most-popular tournament in Esports World Cup history.

• The first Esports World Cup Valorant tournament drew significantly fewer viewers than the Valorant Masters Toronto 2025, held just prior. 

• ALGS: 2025 Midseason Playoffs outperformed the ALGS: 2025 Open in terms of audience reach, with average viewership increasing by 17%. 

• The debut of the new Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves at the Esports World Cup was also a success, becoming the most-popular tournament in the game’s history.

• Peak viewership for the Free Fire tournament rose by 17.9% year-over-year, making it the most-popular mobile battle royale event of 2025 so far.

• The MLBB Women’s Invitational 2025 saw a 76% increase in peak viewership compared to last year. Reaching 467.9K peak viewers, it became the second most-popular women’s esports tournament of all time.

• This year’s Dota 2 tournament peaked at 429.5K viewers, marking a 2.4% increase over last year’s numbers. 

• The Honor of Kings World Cup 2025 drew 653.3K concurrent viewers, making it the most-popular tournament in the title’s history (outside of mainland China). 

• The Call of Duty tournament attracted a peak audience of 268.9K viewers, marking the second-highest viewership for the game in 2025. 

• The StarCraft II broadcasts attracted 79.9K concurrent viewers, marking the game’s best audience numbers since 2021. 

• The PUBG Mobile World Cup 2025 peaked at 1.38 million viewers, making it the game’s most-watched tournament in the last four years. It also broke several language-specific viewership records for PUBG Mobile — you can find more details here.

• The Overwatch tournament peaked at over 177K live viewers, marking the best viewership for the game in 2025. 

• For the first time this year, the Esports World Cup series featured a Chess tournament, where the world’s top grandmasters competed over electronic boards. The broadcasts drew a peak audience of 259.4K viewers, making it the best livestream viewership for chess in 2025.

Detailed reports:

• EWC 2025 Valorant’s viewership fell short of Masters Toronto — 5 key factors explained;

• MLBB Women's Invitational 2025 reinforces rapid growth of women’s esports;

• OpTic’s victory makes Esports World Cup 2025 one of Call of Duty’s most successful events of the year;

• PUBG Mobile World Cup 2025 marks game's most popular event in over four years;

• Chess makes esports gains with grand debut at Esports World Cup 2025.

Overall summary of the four weeks of Esports World Cup 2025

Half of the Esports World Cup 2025 tournament series is already behind us, and some clear viewer trends have already emerged. Looking at the rankings of the most popular tournaments, it’s evident that mobile titles attract the largest audiences, while MOBA games dominate the scene in Riyadh.

The list of the most popular tournaments of Esports World Cup 2025 is virtually finalized. The only event that could still affect the rankings is the Counter-Strike tournament, scheduled for late August, which will be the final event of the series.

Looking at the EWC Club Championship race, the current frontrunners are Team Falcons and Team Liquid — the only teams to have surpassed the 3,000-point mark, while the rest of the participants lag noticeably behind.

EWC 2025 Club Championship Standings (Weeks 1-4):

You can follow detailed updates on the remaining Esports World Cup 2025 tournaments on the Esports Charts report page. At the end of August, we will present the overall viewership results for the entire series.