Last year, the eSports market experienced a tremendous growth. In addition to the steady increase of the amount of eSports enthusiasts all over the world this growth is reflected by record-breaking viewership numbers, new dimensions of prize money and investments into the millions. Reason enough for us to look back on 2015 and sum up a few of the most interesting numbers.
This article features:
- eSports events with the highest amount of unique viewers in 2015
- eSports events with the highest amount of peak concurrent viewers in 2015
- eSports events with the highest amount of visitors on site in 2015
- Investments and buyouts in the eSports market in 2015
- eSports clubs with the highest prize money winnings in 2015
- eSports players with the highest prize money winnings in 2015
- Total awarded prize money ordered by eSports game in 2015
eSports events with the highest amount of unique viewers
| Event | Game | Unique viewers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worlds 2015 | League of Legends | 36,000,000 | Source |
| ESL One Cologne 2015 | CS:GO | 27,000,000 | Source |
| DreamHack Cluj 2015 | CS:GO | 25,090,864 | Source |
| ESL One Katowice 2015 | CS:GO | 8,780,000 | Source |
| Gfinity Championship Series 2015 | CS:GO | 8,750,000 | Source |
| WoT World Championship 2015 | World of Tanks | 2,600,000 | Source |
| ESL Championship (Spring) 2015 | multiple | 1,055,840 | Source |
| Smite World Championship 2015 | Smite | > 1,000,000 | Source |
| Red Bull Gaming Ground 2015 | Dota2 | 500,000 | Source |
| The Main 2015 | League of Legends | 310,000 | Source |
eSports events with the highest amount of peak CCU
| Event | Game | Peak Concurrent Viewers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worlds 2015 | League of Legends | 14,000,000 | Source |
| The International 2015 | Dota2 | 4,606,264* | Source |
| IEM Katowice 2015 | League of Legends | 2,600,000 | Source |
| ESL One Cologne 2015 | CS:GO | 1,300,000 | Source |
| ESL One Katowice 2015 | CS:GO | 1,012,745 | Source |
| ESL One Frankfurt 2015 | Dota2 | 1,000,000 | Source |
| DreamHack Cluj 2015 | CS:GO | 985.052 | Source |
eSports events with the highest amount of visitors on site in 2015
| Event | Game | Visitors on site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IEM Katowice | Multiple | 104,000 | Source |
| ESL One Frankfurt 2015 (Commerzbank Arena) | Dota2 | 30,000 | Source |
| LCS Final NA 2015 (Madison Square Garden, NY) | League of Legends | 22,000 | Source |
| ESL One Cologne 2015 (LANXESS Arena) | CS:GO | 22,000 | Source |
| LCS Final EU 2015 (Hovet Arena, Stockholm) | League of Legends | 20,000 | Source |
| The International 2015 (KeyArena, Seattle) | Dota2 | > 17,000* | Source |
| Worlds 2015 Final (Mercedes-Benz Arena, Berlin) | League of Legends | 13,000 | Source |
Investments and buyouts in the eSports market in 2015
| Investor/Buyer | Company | Investment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| USM Holdings | Virtus.pro | $ 100,000,000 | Source |
| Modern Times Group | Turtle Entertainment GmbH | $ 84,987,000 | Source |
| Activision Blizzard | Major League Gaming | $ 46,000,000 | Source |
| Riot Games | Curse | $ 30,000,000 | Source |
| Index Ventures and more | Super Evil Megacorp | $ 26,000,000 | Source |
| Modern Times Group | DreamHack | $ 25,000,000 | Source |
| FanDuel | AlphaDraft | < $ 25,000,000 | Source |
| Universal Music Group and more | Vulcun | $ 12,000,000 | Source |
| Binary Capital, Mark Cuban and more | Unikrn | $ 10,000,000 | Source |
| March Capital Partners and more | Dojo Madness | $ 2,260,700 | Source |
Clubs with the highest prize money winnings in 2015
| Club | Prize money won | |
|---|---|---|
| Evil Geniuses | $8,958,225 | Source |
| CDEC Gaming | $3,295,931 | Source |
| LGD Gaming | $3,226,494 | Source |
| Vici Gaming | $2,624,702 | Source |
| Team Secret | $2,231,114 | Source |
| Virtus.pro | $2,157,685 | Source |
| COGnitive Gaming | $1,768,958 | Source |
| EHOME | $1,627,431 | Source |
| SK Telecom T1 | $1,531,484 | Source |
| Cloud9 | $1,469,200 | Source |
Players with the highest prize money winnings in 2015
| Player | Game | Prize money won | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peter Dager (ppd) | Dota2 | $1,730,076 | Source |
| Saahil Arora (UNiVeRsE) | Dota2 | $1,730,076 | Source |
| Clinton Loomis (Fear) | Dota2 | $1,730,076 | Source |
| Sumail Hassan (SumaiL) | Dota2 | $1,730,076 | Source |
| Kurtis Ling (Aui_2000) | Dota2 | $1,641,750 | Source |
| Sun, Zheng (Agressif) | Dota2 | $651,470 | Source |
| Liu, Xinzhou (garder) | Dota2 | $651,470 | Source |
| Fu, Bin (Q) | Dota2 | $651,470 | Source |
| Chen, Zezhi (Xz) | Dota2 | $644,622 | Source |
| Huang, Jiwei (Shiki) | Dota2 | $644,622 | Source |
Total awarded prize money ordered by eSports game in 2015
| Game | Awarded prize money | |
|---|---|---|
| Dota 2 | $31,015,892 | Source |
| League of Legends | $7,639,121 | Source |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | $6,177,015 | Source |
| Smite | $3,648,508 | Source |
| StarCraft II | $2,806,310 | Source |
| Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | $2,471,347 | Source |
| Heroes of the Storm | $2,410,690 | Source |
| Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft | $2,355,140 | Source |
| Heroes of Newerth | $755,546 | Source |
| Ultra Street Fighter IV | $559,346 | Source |
// Image source: eslgaming.com / Photograph: Patrick Strack
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