The universe of electronic sports was characterized by the gradual return of offline tournaments and leagues during the second quarter of 2021. While the COVID-19 situation is continuing to impact the execution of Esports competitions, the presence of in-person events had an immediate impact on the ‘Q2 2021 TEO PC Games Impact Score.’ This ranking from The Esports Observer is a metric that quantifies six weighted key performance indicators: monthly active users on PC; distributed prize pools; Twitch Esports hours watched; total Twitch hours watched; number of tournaments, and concurrent Twitch streams.
In general, the current Impact Index features some of the closest results since its inception in 2018. While Riot Games’ League of Legends remains on top of the ranking, its position was seriously threatened for the first time since Q1 of 2019, as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive came within one unit of the current score. Ultimately, League of Legends’ superior player base and Twitch viewership made the difference.
Close scores continue throughout the ranking, with several games lying within one score unit of each other, which created an upside-down distribution of tier rankings, with only two game titles falling into Tier 3 (score lower than 10), while an unprecedented large number of games qualified for Tier 1 (score higher than 40), five. The close ranking and distribution of tiers is representing small margins between the strongly weighted player bases and distributed winnings. For example, during the quarter, nine game titles distributed prize pools larger than US$1 million, but only three of those exceeded US$2 million.
LOL AND CS:GO, FAR FROM THE REST
LoL is still on top of the ‘PC Games Impact Index’ in TEO’s Q2 2021 edition of its scoring system, although its lead over Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the thinnest in years. The popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre title’s successful defense of the Index’s top rank is once more based on its enormous player base and global competitive scene. League of Legends is still the most played game ranked in the Impact Index, with its player base being roughly 14% larger than the second most played game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The game’s popularity not only shows in its player base, but also the consumption of League of Legends game play on live streaming platform Twitch, on which it was the most streamed game at approximately 480 million hours watched in Q2. Additionally, it logged the most Esports hours watched on the platform and the only title to exceed 100 million Esports hours watched.
During the quarter all major regional leagues in Riot Games’ global League of Legends competitive circuit ended the first of two annual competition rounds, drawing significant viewership and contributing to a total prize pool of US$1.47 million that was paid out during the quarter. Furthermore, Riot Games organized one of the first major in-person tournaments as the world is starting to condemn the global COVID-19 pandemic in Reykjavík, Iceland, with participants coming from all parts of the globe.
Driven by one of the most enduring Esports scenes, the first-person shooter title Counter-Strike: Global Offensive achieved one of its best results in the ‘Q2 2021 Impact Index.’ The scene has been featuring one of the most active competitive circuits for years. While a couple of franchised leagues and tournaments were recently introduced, it continues to maintain a large amount of open entry competitions that see Counter-Strike: Global Offensive usually topping the sheets in tournaments hosted. Unsurprisingly, the title topped that factor of the Impact Index once again with 130 organized competitions during the quarter. An additional reason for the game’s strong performance in the Index was its constantly strong player base, which was only outscored by League of Legends, and the amount of prize money distributed during the period, which topped all games at approximately US$4.36 million. The pivotal factor holding Counter-Strike: Global Offensive back from trumping League of Legends in the Impact Index was its viewership on Twitch, which came in at only 42% of League of Legends hours watched, or 201 million hours watched.
Following these games, in the Top 10 of the Impact Index are Dota 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone, Valorant (all Tier 1), Fortnite, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Besides, other relevant games for the period were Overwatch, World of Warcraft, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), FIFA 21 and Hearthstone.