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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mplsvbhvr
January 11, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Great article – anyone know why there’s no official data on TI5?
Christian Kresse
January 11, 2016 at 3:45 pm
I tried to contact VALVE but didn’t get a response. As far as I know VALVE didn’t announce why there is no official data. They maintain silence on that topic.
mplsvbhvr
January 12, 2016 at 1:46 pm
Numbers will be released with HL:3 I’m sure… /s
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Jabron
January 12, 2016 at 9:58 am
Do you have information like this for years past? Like 2013 2014 etc?
Christian Kresse
January 12, 2016 at 1:32 pm
For now, we dont have information like this for 2014, 2013 or later, but we included numbers of these years in several articles on this blog:
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john
June 27, 2016 at 6:50 pm
Great article, I am very interested to see the direction in which eSports will evolve. We have already seen scholarships being offered for league of legends pro players and had league of legends dominate as the biggest in the industry for several years now but it looks like CS:GO might be giving it a run for its money.
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ian Cowley
October 24, 2016 at 11:19 am
excellent article with sources. settles any future arguments where someone tells me that Call of Duty is the biggest and best again.
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PhD Candidate
April 15, 2017 at 11:21 am
Great and hepful article! @Christian Kresse do you have the same kind of article but with the updated data from 2016? I’ve seen some info in other articles of your blog such as this one http://esports-marketing-blog.com/43-million-unique-viewers-reached-throughout-league-legends-world-championship-2016/#.WPIBh_0lHBI but couldn’t find a general summ up of 2016. Thank you dude!
Christian Kresse
April 15, 2017 at 8:52 pm
Thank you. In terms of eSports viewership numbers you can check this one out. In terms of investments there is a similar list planned, but I didnt have time to do it yet. So stay tuned 🙂
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