The 2023 global esports scene saw a lot of interesting events, which had a strong impact not only on specific disciplines but on the industry as a whole. In this article, Esports Charts takes a look back at the new world record in League of Legends, the problematic release of Counter-Strike 2, the continuous reshape of Valorant esports, the shutdown of the Overwatch League, and much more.
Dota 2 — The International reformation and Dota Pro Circuit shutdown
Dota 2 saw dramatic changes in 2023. In September, Valve announced that they would no longer be running the Dota Pro Circuit regional leagues that had formed the game's professional scene for the past few years. This could hard-hit Dota 2 teams that were getting paid virtually just for playing in the first or second division of the league, as now they will have to find sponsors and funding on their own. On the other hand, the Dota Pro Circuit leagues have long been discredited by a large number of fixed matches (especially in the second divisions), so it was only a matter of time before they were reformed.
It's still unclear how exactly the professional Dota 2 scene will look in 2024. Valve hasn't shared any plans for the upcoming season yet, but some players have already speculated that the majors will be replaced by big tournaments from the ESL FACEIT Group, like the ESL One or DreamLeague series. It's likely to be a very dynamic and a bit chaotic season, with teams having to play a lot of different qualifiers and travel all over the world from one tournament to another.
The International 2023 Stage at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena (Photo: GeekWire / Thomas Wilde)
Another big news for the discipline this year was the fact that The International has lost the status of the most profitable tournament of the season in all of esports. In 2023, the world championship featured only $3.3 million prize pool, although teams were competing for $40 million just two years ago: in different regards, but this drop was a strong demotivator for the entire community, not just teams and players. Going forward, Dota 2 is expected to receive large investments from the Middle East, and more specifically from Saudi Arabia, which began to organize super tournaments in various disciplines. Perhaps there will be a replacement for the legendary The International.
Saudi Arabia becomes the new esports capital
Saudi Arabia is gradually becoming the new capital of gaming. Over the past year and a half, the country has spent almost $8 billion on the global gaming and esports market, and in seven years it plans to become the "main global center for gaming and esports".
Saudi Arabia's ambitions for the gaming industry are huge. The nation plans to be home to 250 game studios and 39,000 employees. Gaming has become so popular in the country, with 70% of the 36 million people under the age of 35 identifying themselves as gamers. Saudi esports company Savvy Gaming Group currently owns or has significant stakes in VSPO, Embracer Group, Scopely, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, ESL, FACEIT, and ESEA gaming companies.
Gamers8 tournaments stage (Photo: Gamers8)
In 2023, Riyadh hosted a huge gaming and esports festival called Gamers8 with the support of Savvy Games Group, which offered a total of $45 million in various disciplines. The organizers allocated $15 million for the Dota 2 tournament alone — that's 4.5 times more than what was awarded at The International 2023. The event also included CS:GO, PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, FIFA, Rocket League, StarCraft II, Tekken 7, and other titles. And that's without mentioning the music concerts, game company expos, studio presentations, and more that Gamers8 had to offer. In 2024, this trend will continue — Saudi Arabia has already announced that the country will host the IESF World Championship, where national teams from different countries will compete.
CS:GO — Counter-Strike 2 transition problems
2023 turned out to be the last year for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In September, Valve released Counter-Strike 2, which was a real challenge for both casual shooter fans and players on the professional scene. Teams had to adapt to new shooting mechanics, learn new grenade patterns, come up with new tactics, etc. while having no break from competitions. Most of the top teams successfully switched to the new version of the game, although it took a lot of time and effort.
As for ordinary users, the release of Counter-Strike 2 was a disappointment for many. Already in the first month after the release of the game, it became clear that the shooter needs serious improvements — the game showed a lot of annoying bugs that affected the gameplay. In addition, Counter-Strike 2 has a huge number of cheaters, with whom Valve still cannot cope. All these problems led to the fact that the game gradually began to decline in online statistics. In May and June, the average online in CS:GO exceeded a million players, but in November, the number dropped to 714K. However, we have already seen something similar during the release of CS:GO, when the game also had to be fine-tuned after the release. There is still time for that, as the first Counter-Strike 2 Major will be held in March.
Counter-Strike 2 (Photo: Steam)
Along with the release of Counter-Strike 2, Valve also announced the release of a new set of tournament rules. The developers plan to ban franchise leagues as well as oblige organizers to make public all their financial transactions with teams. It is believed that primarily it will affect the tournament system of the ESL and the BLAST, which are the two companies that organize most of the top international tournaments in the discipline. It's still hard to say where this will lead, but tournament operators have time to think about it — the new rules are scheduled to come into force in 2025.
Valorant — tournament format check and new affiliate league in China
The Valorant esports scene underwent a very successful restructuring in 2023 — Riot Games launched three regional leagues with partner teams and organized major international tournaments in Brazil, Japan, and Los Angeles. In addition, the developers actively supported the regional Challengers and Game Changers divisions. Gradually, Valorant is building a stable and clear esports ecosystem, which aims to become even more exciting in 2024.
Riot Games has recently summarized Valorant's tournament season and announced plans for the upcoming year. The new VCT China affiliate league will be one of the main novelty of the season and will follow the same principles and rules as the Americas, the EMEA, and the Pacific leagues. The Chinese division will feature teams from ten notable clubs, including Bilibili Gaming, EDward Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix and JD Gaming. So far, Valorant follows the steps of League of Legends, where the developers have also been introducing new regions to the scene step by step.
VCT China 2024 participants (Image credit: Riot Games / VCT China via X)
Riot Games continues to experiment with the format of the season. The company likes to start the year with a big tournament, so the analog of LOCK//IN will be held in 2024. However, it will not be a tournament for everyone in general, but rather for each region separately. In addition, the developers will continue to work on balancing the tournament schedule — Riot wants to keep the interest of viewers in the discipline at a high level throughout the year, not just in the spring and summer. Another big new addition to the Valorant tournament ecosystem will be the introduction of team skin sets. All members of affiliate leagues will be able to get them. Fans will now have the option to purchase these sets and thus support their favorite clubs financially.
League of Legends — community casting and a new esports world record
The League of Legends esports scene also saw a lot of interesting developments and dynamics. For example, the American LCS league continues to lose its audience and is already behind CBLOL in terms of viewership. The LEC is doing a bit better, but the European league is still far from its 2020/21 numbers. The LCK, on the other hand, has seen a positive trend in audience reach — the LCK Summer 2023 was the most popular season in the history of the Korean series, drawing 1.52 million Peak Viewers. Continued regional viewership fluctuations are ongoing, laying the groundwork for Riot Games to potentially reshape the esports scene in the future.
What's more important, in 2023, Riot Games continued the practice of community-casting that it pioneered with the 2022 World Championship. This coincided with the emergence of popular media teams in the LEC, with Team Heretic and KOI joining the league. In 2024, the LEC will feature the Karmine Corp, one of the France's most popular esports organization, which was created by popular French streamer Kamet0. New participants always bring new and interesting storylines for the league, and the support of top community casters will surely allow the LEC to increase its audience reach.
Worlds 2023 Stage in Seoul (Photo: Riot Games)
Last but not least, the 2023 World Championship was the most important event of the League of Legends season. Thanks in large part to community casting, it attracted more than 6.4 million Peak Viewers and became the most popular event in the history of esports (excluding Chinese viewership). This tournament also brought a fourth win for Korean club T1. T1's leader, Faker, became the only League of Legends player to win the World Championships four times. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to surpass this unique achievement anytime soon.
Honor of Kings global release
Honor of Kings, a mobile title from TiMi Studio Group, was released worldwide in 2023. Previously, the game was mainly available in China for 8 years, but now its publisher — Level Infinite — has brought it to the international market. This could have a big impact on the entire professional mobile esports scene in Asia and beyond.
Honor of Kings is the Chinese mobile analog of such popular titles as Dota 2 and League of Legends. According to Sports Business Journal, it is one of the most profitable mobile games of all time, and even before its worldwide release, it has brought its creators more than 12 billion dollars since release. It is also one of the most popular mobile title in the world: Sensor Tower analysts say that more than 80 million people (almost all from China) play Honor of Kings every day, and QuestMobile editors counted up to 145 million active users every month.
Honor of Kings International Championship 2022 (Photo: VSPO)
Interestingly, Honor of Kings has had a twin game called Arena of Valor for years, which was also developed by TiMi Studio Group but for promotion outside of China. Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor have their own tournament ecosystems, and the games are similar to one another. It's not yet clear how these games will develop alongside each other on the same stage, but the potential is huge. At last year's Honor of Kings International Championship 2022, for example, the participants played for $10 million, which is about the same amount that is available at this year's World Championship. Most of the participants in these super tournaments represented China, but together with the world release teams from Brazil, Myanmar, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia entered the discipline too.
Overwatch League's final season
The year 2023 saw the last season of the Overwatch League: the league ceased to exist after a long struggle with a large series of problems. In November, the franchise members voted not to sign a new operating agreement with Activision Blizzard and receive a $6 million termination fee. According to Esports Insider, 2/3 of all teams made this decision, which led to the league's closure.
From the very beginning, the Overwatch League had huge ambitions. The organizers tried to build an esports franchise similar to the NBA or MLB, attracted major sponsors and investors, sold slots in the league for $20-30 million. Activision Blizzard had huge plans, which included seasons with home and away matches, esports arenas in different cities and even countries. Unfortunately, as time went on, it all got entangled in endless problems.
In the third year of the Overwatch League's existence, the coronavirus pandemic broke out. The league was forced to go online, and stadium games became completely unavailable. This hit the team's fan sector, as supporters bought merchandise and liked to attend live matches. In addition, the players had difficulties applying for and renewing their U.S. visas — most of the teams had players from South Korea and other countries.
In November 2022, Activision Blizzard suddenly announced that it was unable to conclude a new license agreement with NetEase, so after 14 years of cooperation, it would be forced to leave the Chinese market. This was a shock to all Overwatch fans as several teams from China play in the OWL. Eventually, viewership interest in the league began to slowly decline, which was very discouraging to team owners and investors.
Overwatch League (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP/Shutterstock)
Activision Blizzard itself also had a difficult time. There were regular personnel changes in the company: employees left for other studios, heads of esports departments changed, etc. Much confusion was caused by the multi-billion-dollar deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, which hung in the air because of various regional regulators. All of these circumstances led to the OWL owners deciding to vote to disband the league.
The closure of the Overwatch League is certainly bad news for the entire esports industry, but that doesn't mean that Overwatch esports is over. Activision Blizzard will have to look for new options and formats to develop the game's professional scene, with a more healthy approach this time.
FIFA to EA Sports FC 24 rebranding
The FIFA was rebranded in 2023 — EA Sports ended its long-term cooperation with the International Football Federation, after which the new game was released under the name EA Sports FC 24. At the same time, not much changed for gamers, as EA Sports retained the license to use the names of more than 19,000 players, 700 teams, 100 stadiums, and 30 football leagues.
What's interesting, EA Sports FC 24 has already made some progress in terms of esports. For example, Electronic Arts launched the FC Pro 24 Open, where they used a new mechanic for the discipline to attract viewers — now any user can get player cards and in-game experience for regular viewing of tournament matches. Thanks to this, the FC Pro 24 Open qualification broadcasts gathered almost 340K Peak Viewers. This is the best result in the entire existence of the football simulator. It looks like FC Pro 24 esports has good prospects.
Moreover, it is also important to note that new promising disciplines are emerging in the esports industry. For example, Escape from Tarkov, Rennsport, Epic Seven, Farlight 84 and others. Previously, competitions in these disciplines could be seen only at show matches or events like Twitch Rivals, but now there are large prize pools and a tournament ecosystem is gradually forming. Perhaps in the future, one of these games will compete with Counter-Strike or League of Legends in terms of audience reach.
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