Esports is running on Saudi money
Esports, organized competitive gaming for spectators, was sold to investors as the next sports league. By 2023 the money had run out, and teams cut staff or were sold for a fraction of old valuations. Most funding now comes from game makers and Saudi Arabia.
What is esports?
Esports is competitive video gaming, played for prize money in front of an audience, much like traditional sports. Its business has three separate players that people often mix up: the publisher owns the game and decides who can run competitions with it, the teams hire and pay the players, and the event organizers sell the tickets and the broadcast rights.
Where it stands
The Esports World Cup, funded by Saudi Arabia, has raised its prize money every year, to $75 million in 2026, and through its separate Club Partner Program pays 40 clubs a share of $20 million a year to promote it. Esports Charts calls Saudi capital the baseline funding source for the whole business. That carries risk: in 2026 the World Cup moved from Riyadh to Paris because of conflict in the region. Hours watched still grow. Teams are still cutting and selling cheap: Complexity was resold in 2024 for less than half its 2021 price, and Guild Esports closed in 2025. Both the boom coverage and the collapse coverage are out of date.
- Total prize money
- Of which, paid to clubs
The prize money has risen every year, from $45 million to $75 million, and the share set aside for clubs from $20 million to $30 million. It is one sponsor's spending, not a measure of the business.
SourceEsports World Cup Foundation
| Year | Total prize money | Of which, paid to clubs |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 45 | n/a |
| 2024 | 60 | 20 |
| 2025 | 70 | 27 |
| 2026 | 75 | 30 |
Timeline
2023
A Saudi event sets a record with $45 million in prizes
Gamers8, a festival in Riyadh, announces $45 million in prize money, then the largest sum in esports and three times its total the year before.
FaZe Clan, once valued at $1 billion, is sold for a reported $17 million
GameSquare agrees to buy FaZe Clan in a deal paid in shares and reported at $17 million. When FaZe announced its plan to go public in 2021, it was valued at $1 billion.
100 Thieves cuts a fifth of its staff
100 Thieves lays off roughly 20% of its employees, its second round of cuts in a year, and spins off its game studio and its energy drink.
2024
Complexity is sold back to its founder for less than half its 2021 price
GameSquare sells the American team Complexity to a group led by its founder, Jason Lake, for $10.36 million. Lake had sold it for $27 million in 2021.
The first Esports World Cup offers more than $60 million
The Esports World Cup Foundation, funded by Saudi Arabia, announces the first Esports World Cup with prize money of more than $60 million. $20 million of it is the Club Championship, prize money shared among the top 16 clubs according to their results across every game.
2025
The Foundation puts 40 clubs on its payroll
The Foundation expands its Club Partner Program from 30 clubs to 40, with $20 million between them and up to $1 million each. This is a separate payment from the prize money on the chart. Clubs are paid for producing content and promoting the event, not for winning.
Guild Esports, once backed by David Beckham, closes
Guild Esports, a London team that raised 20 million pounds from investors in 2020, stops operating in August 2025 after a sale found no buyer. It had been sold for 2.1 million pounds the year before and was never profitable.
2026
The prize money rises to $75 million
The Foundation sets the 2026 prize money at $75 million, with $30 million for the top 24 clubs and $7 million for the winning club.
Riot reopens its Valorant leagues to outsiders
Riot Games announces that from 2027 every team in its Valorant leagues, including the partner teams with guaranteed places, must play through regional qualifiers that anyone can enter. Partner teams keep their payments from Riot.
A listed team owner reports record revenue and a bigger loss
OverActive Media, the Toronto-listed owner of Movistar KOI and two Call of Duty and Overwatch teams, reports record revenue of 28.5 million Canadian dollars for 2025 and a net loss of 11.4 million, up from 0.6 million the year before.
The Esports World Cup is moved from Riyadh to Paris
With conflict in the Middle East and flights canceled, the Foundation moves the 2026 Esports World Cup to Paris. 'Riyadh is the home of EWC,' it says.
The Paris event draws 237 million hours of viewing
Esports Charts counts more than 237 million hours watched for the 2026 Esports World Cup, up 29.5% on 2025. The peak audience of 2.89 million is 6% below the year before.
Consequences
012026
Saudi money is now the baseline, not an investor
Esports Charts argues that Saudi capital has become the baseline funding source for esports. It now sits in game publishing, in the largest tournament organizer, in event brands and in venues, as well as in prize money.
022026
The subsidy comes with conditions
HEROIC dropped out of the Club Partner Program in May 2026 after leaving Dota 2, a game its management called tough to make money from. The Foundation said the club no longer met the minimum requirements. To keep the payment, a club has to keep fielding teams in several games, including ones that lose money.
032026
Closed leagues leave popular teams with nowhere to go
Esports Charts points to Los Ratones, a team that drew some of the best audiences of the European League of Legends season as a guest. However well it played, it could not earn a permanent place. That is the pressure behind Riot's decision to reopen Valorant.
Objections
Counterpoint2026
Hours watched are growing, not receding
Watch time for the Esports World Cup rose 29.5% in 2026 and average viewers 36.9%, though the peak audience was 6% below the year before. Esports Charts adds its own caveat. The 2026 event had more tournaments and new qualifying stages, so part of the rise is more airtime rather than more people.
Counterpoint2026
Nobody counts the teams, and some are doing well
No one publishes how many teams close each year or what teams earn in total. The evidence of trouble is a list of cases. Against it, Esports Charts reports that the Korean team T1 had its first profitable year in 2025, with revenue above $60 million, up 80%. It adds that Western teams continue to reduce costs.
Counterpoint2026
The headline size of esports is mostly betting
Statista projects worldwide esports revenue of $4.91 billion in 2026. The largest part, $2.80 billion, is betting on esports. That is not money teams earn, and nobody publishes a figure for what they do earn.
Counterpoint2026
The prize figures are promises, from the body that pays them
The chart shows what the Foundation announced, not audited payments, and two of the four totals were stated only as 'more than'. The rises are also getting smaller each year. The chart measures one sponsor's generosity. It does not measure the health of the business.
What to watch
2027
Whether partner teams lose their places
Early 2027, when Riot's Valorant season starts under the new format and partner teams play open qualifiers for the first time.
2027
Whether the World Cup goes home to Riyadh
Summer 2027, the next Esports World Cup. The Foundation moved the 2026 event to Paris and has put back its new Nations Cup, due in Riyadh in November 2026, to November 2027. Where it holds the 2027 World Cup will show how far the funding still depends on events in Saudi Arabia.
Further reading
- AnalysisEsports Business H1 2026: 4 Shifts Reshaping the Industryescharts.com
- CommunityKiwoom aims to become the first publicly listed Korean eSports teamreddit.com
- DataWho watched EWC 2026 co-streams? Audience demographics and key marketsstreamscharts.com
Where to follow it SportBusiness, Esports Insider, Sports Business Journal esports desk, Esports Charts viewership data
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