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The Esports World Cup (EWC) was announced in 2023 as a part of the plan to popularise the popularity of esports in the Middle East. The announcement was made by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the New Global Sports Conference in Riyadh. Since the announcement of the global tournament, the EWC has been adding games that will be part of this multi-series event. It will feature some of the most popular and notable esports titles across several genres. Not only this, but the tournament has finalised the lineup of games that will be there at the inaugural event in Riyadh.
While the dates for all the events are yet to be announced, the officials have revealed the qualification criteria and stated that the teams can qualify through multiple professional tournaments as well as regional qualifiers and global rankings. Not only this but several teams and organisations will also qualify through direct invites to the tournament.
A total of 19 games will feature at the Esports World Cup, which are:
- PUBG Mobile - Battle Royale
- Free Fire - Battle Royale
- Fortnite - Battle Royale
- Rocket League - Vehicular Soccer
- StarCraft II - RealTime Strategy
- Teamfight Tactics - Auto Battler Strategy
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang - MOBA
- League of Legends - MOBA
- Dota 2 - MOBA
- Counter-Strike 2 - Tactical FPS
- Overwatch 2 - FPS Hero Shooter
- Honor of Kings - MOBA
- PUBG - Battle Royale
- Apex Legends - Battle Royale
- EA SPORTS FC - Sports Video Game
- Street Fighter 6 - Fighting Game
- Tekken 8 - Fighting Game
- RENNSPORT - Simracing
The objective behind hosting the Esports World Cup Program is to support the esports industry financially. By hosting the tournament, a total of 28 organisations including 22 invites and 6 qualifiers will receive financial funding for their operations. In addition, these organisations will also compete among each other across all events to secure the highest points as well as the prize pool, which will be announced later.
According to Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation, “When we started working on the Esports World Cup and announced it last fall, we promised to bring the community all the best games. This final batch of titles concludes this promise. We are incredibly excited and thankful to all the publishers and game developers for making this dream lineup a reality.”
