Author:
Aleksa Ajk Radulovic
Last Updated on:
07/10/2024
Experiences:
Lover of all things esports
Experiences:
Lover of all things esports
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The never-ending list of eSports titles you can play today can be overwhelming, even more so if you haven’t read a single guide to eSports games. How do you know which one to play right from the start?
To answer this very question, we’ll take a break from eSports betting site reviews and actually get down to the topic of eSports itself. We’ll go through the best eSports games and detail the things that make them successful across the eSports betting market. In making our top picks, we’ve considered factors like active players, growth rate, and overall prestige.
When Riot launched League of Legends in 2009, it immediately found a fanbase that has been growing ever since. People were offered a smoother, easier multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game for the first time in their lives, and those who had played other complex MOBA eSports games, like Dota 1, were the first to jump aboard.
Moving forward to today, which is a little over a decade later already, League of Legends remains to be a massive title not only in the video game industry but also in the iGaming industry. In fact, more and more League of Legends betting sites are getting created while other newer games slowly fade out of trend.
A game with a massive collection of characters and overly rich game mechanics? That’s Dota 2 all the way. It’s one of the best eSports games because it’s the ultimate definition of hardcore MOBA where strategic fights and clashes and mental warfare reach their highest peaks.
Most importantly, Dota 2 is much more than what it appears to be. Granted, the game may have seen a small but steady decrease in its monthly players starting in 2016, but its community stays as united and passionate as ever.
This community’s latest feat is the $40 million prize pool of The International 10, The International being Dota 2’s flagship annual event and by far eSports’ most lucrative tournament. The millions of dollars involved every year put the Dota 2 betting niche at the center of the eSports betting market.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) gives eSports betting sites a lot of events to work on, which is why there’s a CS:GO betting website in almost every country in the world. It’s a first-person shooter (FPS) game. What’s more is that it’s the godfather of competitive FPS eSports games.
Today, thousands of professional CS:GO matches happen in a year, granting eSports bettors a ton of opportunity to make some profit by supporting their favorite teams. Check out any CS:GO betting website and you’ll find the large collection of events that CS:GO has to offer.
Instead of following the traditional point-and-shoot mechanics of most FPS games that came before it, Valorant decided to take a more elaborate approach by adding abilities to its characters. Agents can dash like the wind, call down inferno, summon a dog, shoot exploding arrows, throw flashes through walls, go to a different dimension, and much more!
Captivated yet? You should be. After all, Valorant is one of the hottest competitive video games right now. Its audience continues to skyrocket with seemingly no intention of stopping any time in the near future. This so much potential can only mean more Valorant events and tournaments taking place, which means more eSports gambling opportunities in turn.
The biggest problem gamers have with battle royale eSports games is that they lack mechanics. You can be having a shootout with one enemy and lose your head in the process without even knowing what just happened. In a nutshell, the main complaint is that the long effort of getting the chicken dinner often fails in the most boring fashion.
Apex Legends solved this problem by offering fast-paced, intense gameplay where you can dodge, slide, glide, and fly all the while with your guns blazing. The characters, called “Legends,” also have unique abilities that you can use to synergize with your teammates and annihilate your enemies.
Gamers crave the chase. They want action, speed, and outplay, which are the building blocks behind Overwatch’s success. The gameplay can be compared to Apex Legends, but since Overwatch is strictly an FPS game and not a battle royale, its maps are smaller, and so all the action gets crammed into a tighter space.
The many possibilities in every professional match make Overwatch eSports betting a treasure trove for bettors. Unlike in other FPS titles that use a team battle format (where your entire team has to die for another round to start), here you can keep the fight always going as the respawn duration only takes 10 seconds.
Many eSports games have been compared to chess due to their strategic nature, but none of them come close to StarCraft 2, yet another game by Blizzard Entertainment. Much like the Game of Kings, it’s a 1 versus 1 type of game that revolves around one person outsmarting and outmaneuvering his or her enemy.
To win in StarCraft 2, you have to be a master multitasker. You have no teammates to rely on, which means building an empire from scratch is your sole responsibility. Throughout the game, the time is always ticking faster and faster, and only by being resilient, proactive, and wise can you be victorious.
StarCraft 2 eSports events give bettors a chance not only to play for money but also to support the only mainstream real-time strategy eSports game.
When Epic Games released Fortnite in 2017, it immediately climbed the charts as one of the best eSports games of the decade. In a matter of months, the cartoonish battle royale game reached 30 million players. By 2020, the number of players looting and shooting (and “flossing”) hit 350 million.
This amazing growth explains why Fortnite betting sites continue to flourish. The many Fortnite tournaments that involve a competitive fight between one hundred players open up a lot of possibilities to make serious money.
Because guessing who’s going to win in a packed royal rumble match is nearly comparable to guessing the winning number of a small lottery, betting sites tend to hike up the risk-reward ratio for a more exciting betting experience.
Some gamers prefer a perfect balance between action and strategy. They don’t necessarily like jumping in the middle of a fight and going on a rampage. They want a slow buildup that pays off huge in the end.
If this sounds like you, then PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, commonly known as PUBG, is probably among your favorite eSports games. This battle royale shooter game requires aiming, patience, and clever maneuvers. As the play zone gets smaller and smaller, the more intense everything becomes.
Unfortunately, only a few betting sites offer PUBG because of its dwindling fanbase. To find an eSports betting site that has PUBG, we recommend that you also look for a World of Tanks betting website. Some bookies only like offering games that simulate real-life warfare.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, just Modern Warfare for short, is most definitely not cartoonish. You can tell it by the name itself. Unlike other FPS, like CS:GO and Valorant, Modern Warfare gives you a lot of freedom in terms of movement and aim. This means you won’t have to hold angles that hard.
There’s not much on the side of Call of Duty eSports betting right now because there are no Modern Warfare events happening. Since the game has also stopped growing its player base, most bookies don’t have it. But for those who did, the game’s 10 million monthly players tell the future is bright.
Everyone loves a crossover game where they can see cute little Pikachu take on sword demon Sephiroth. If you think their battle would be legendary, how about Pac-Man and Kirby fighting like two lottery balls in a windy chamber?
You might think that’s silly, but these kinds of absurd matchups are also what makes Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, normally shortened to Smash Bros. or just Smash, one of the best eSports games ever.
As much fun as Smash matches can get, this game isn’t popular at all when it comes to eSports gambling. Most bookies shy away from offering Smash as an eSports title you can bet on because its player base is mostly made up of younger audiences, specifically gamers from age 10 to 20.
We recommend checking out the Hearthstone betting niche as an alternative. Like Smash, it’s also a light game played only by 2 players. It’s a bit technical though so you’ll need to read a guide to eSports games related to it.
What’s better than football and car racing? Football car racing. But don’t write that down! Psyonix already has all of us beaten to the idea by creating Rocket League, a vehicular soccer game where, as you can probably guess, you drive a car and try to push the ball into the enemy team’s goal with your teammates’ help.
So, why is this among the best eSports games? Because Rocket League isn’t as simple as it seems. The mechanical skills and cooperation required to put a single ball between two goalposts make for complicated gameplay. This means the few betting sites that offer Rocket League can create a set of legitimate bets around it.
If you feel like reading some guides to betting on eSports, we have a lot of content on our website to help you get started!
Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege is a tactical shooter game where you take the point of view of a real-life soldier in an operation. You have to hold angles, cooperate with your team, and use your character’s gadget as if your life depends on it.
While it’s not one of those fast-paced FPS games, Rainbow Six Siege gives you unique game mechanics that aren’t slow and boring. In fact, Rainbow Six eSports events are often filled with people holding their breaths because of the intense atmosphere between two teams locked in one building with nothing but wits, guns, and gadgetry.
To understand this game’s big picture, you have to read a guide to eSports games that are all about Tom Clancy’s. This is the massive franchise that Rainbow Six Siege belongs to.
We all know about basketball and the National Basketball Association (NBA). And if you’re a gamer, then you should also know about NBA 2K, games that simulate the NBA. What you probably don’t know is that NBA 2K eSports betting with real money is a thing.
Most eSports gambling sites started featuring this title right off the bat because the many NBA 2K League matches that are spread throughout the year mean betting opportunities. Unlike the actual NBA, the NBA 2K League is played online, meaning the events aren’t that affected by real-world factors like a pandemic. The show goes on!
The point of eSports is to challenge and express yourself through video games. You don’t have to be physically strong, tall, or young. Also, you don’t have to have a perfect vision, a 45-inch vertical jump, or a 2.35-meter wingspan. You just have to have a well-functioning PC or console, a decent internet, and a passion for video games.
So, what’s your type of game? As you were reading our picks for the best eSports games, there’s a good chance you’ve scrolled through one and thought how much fun it would be to play it. Do you want to enter the world of MOBA?
If FPS is more your cup of tea, do you prefer the cartoonish ones like Overwatch where you can just go all out nearly all the time? Or maybe you like the more realistic ones that require more patience such as CS:GO, PUBG, and Rainbow Six? Perhaps you want to get the best of both worlds by playing Valorant, Apex Legends, Fortnite, or Modern Warfare?
The decision to play one or play as many as possible is up to you.