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 |
* There is no official data regarding the International 2015 (TI5), but we have received a lot of feedback which criticizes TI5 not being on the list. We have received a source which shows that the final match had at least 4,606,264 viewers at a certain time. Therefore we added it, but we cannot be sure if this is the official amount of peak concurrent viewers.
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 |
* There is no official data regarding the International 2015 (TI5), but we have received a lot of feedback which criticizes TI5 not being on the list. Therefore we added it. The tournament lasted six days and took place in the KeyArena in Seattle which has a total seating capacity of over 17,000. Since the final day of the tournament was sold out it is safe to assume that it had more than 17.000 visitors on site, but at this moment we cannot provide any additional and profound data.
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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