Report: More than 70% of Kalshi’s $665.9 million esports turnover came in-play

Pavo Jurkic Published October 1, 2026

A brand-new report by Afonso Martins, founder of 21Core AI and an experienced Data & Research Engineer, shows Kalshi’s esports markets had $665.9 million in turnover between January 8th and September 2nd, 2026.

71.50% of the total turnover occurred after the scheduled match start time, which shows how important in-play trading is on Kalshi’s esports prediction markets.

Martins’ Esports Trading Desk Report covered approximately 23 million trades across 59,682 active esports markets and focuses solely on the Kalshi platform instead of the global esports trading volume.

Disclaimer: The term turnover represents the cumulative taker stakes. In other words, it represents the total amounts paid by participants. It does not represent Kalshi’s revenue, fresh deposits or unique money invested on the platform.

Counter-Strike 2 generated $280.40 Million

Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 generated $280.40 million in turnover, which accounts for 42.10% of the total amount. Riot Games’ League of Legends and Valorant were right behind it, with $216.50 million and $104.20 million, respectively.

Based on their respective turnover totals, Counter-Strike 2 and League of Legends make up nearly three-quarters (74.60%) of the total $665.90 million.

Despite having a lower turnover, League of Legends generated more maker profit than Counter-Strike 2. LoL generated approximately $3.12 million, while CS2 generated $1.89 million.

Makers represent participants who provide the offers accepted by the traders. That said, maker profit represents the combined profit or loss against final outcomes, rather than Kalshi’s revenue.

All figures and percentages are rounded. The third column (share of total turnover) was calculated based on the report’s total turnover of $665.90 million.

In-play trading generates the most turnover

Across the four primary titles (CS2, LoL, Valorant, and Dota 2), trading after scheduled match starts accounted for the majority of turnover.

Dota 2 had the highest share at 82.40%, while VALORANT was the closest challenger at 74.60%.

Source: Esports Trading Desk Report by Afonso Martins

Lower-priced trades had lower returns

According to the report’s Margin & Hold analysis, participants buying contracts valued 20 cents or less lost roughly 4.9% of their investments. Those who were buying contracts at 60 cents or above lost 1.1%.

In other words, takers who purchased cheaper contracts for less likely outcomes lost a bigger percentage of their investments, on average.

Additionally, executions of $1,000 and above account for 12% of the total turnover and returned roughly -2.5% to the takers, whereas executions below $100 returned -1.1%.

The report flags stale data, and the selected period ends on September 2. Its final-week decline should therefore not be interpreted as evidence of a broader industry downturn.

Featured image credit: Kalshi