The eSports management platform “Battlefly” has now released statistics on the top 10 most popular eSports games for 2013. Even though MMOs have recently started to discover the eSports field for themselves, MOBAs remain dominant, with the top spots far ahead.
The first two games on the list are reserved for “League of Legends” and DOTA 2 – both games are also at the forefront on raptr or Twitch. At the moment, MOBAs are on top. Following them are two outliers, Fifa and Pokemon 2, whose success is due to their exceptional status in their respective genres. In positions 5 to 9, you find the usual suspects: renowned shooter franchises like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Counterstrike. The former champion Starcraft 2 has aged a bit and is in 6th place, while the Street Fighter series is in 8th place.
The only one that is at least “a bit MMO” is the lagging World of Tanks trundling to the finish, although a fan base has formed around it in Eastern Europe.
Even without MMOs, the number of eSports tournaments in North America is steadily increasing. This year, estimates suggest there will be nearly 48,000 tournaments held in North America. In 2011, there were still 8,809 tournaments. Perhaps Hearthstone will also appear in the list for 2014, as it is gaining popularity in eSports.
Will we soon see Guild Wars 2 in the list?
Mein MMO thinks: In recent months, “Guild Wars 2” has been trying to establish a second pillar in eSports. For Gamescom, a big Allstar tournament is planned.
Other MMOs like World of Warcraft have often toyed with the idea of an “eSports” tournament, but want to regulate it internally through specific tournament and arena formats, which apparently never quite worked out.
Apparently, most existing MMOs with their advantages through items, different skill trees, and frequent balance changes are not suitable for eSports. Especially since combat systems are often not skill-based. Also, WildStar, with a skill-based combat system, does not seem to attract eSports players or competitive PvPers in droves. Recently, it was announced that due to a lack of interest, they want to reduce the endgame PvP, the war bases, from 40 players per team to 30.
What do you think? Can the item and character progression of an MMO be reconciled with the equal opportunities of eSports? Or does every MMO that looks towards eSports handicap itself too much?
