Nolan Rosen on Esports: The Most Popular Games in 2025

Esports is a rapidly growing industry. Nolan Rosen, a long-time gamer and student at Montana State University, has seen esports rise from a relatively niche hobby to a billion-dollar industry with hundreds of millions of players and multiple revenue streams. According to Statista, the global esports market was expected to reach $4.8 billion in 2025 thanks to revenue increases in sponsorship and advertising, streaming, merchandise and ticketing, media rights, and esports betting.

While there are many different games with thousands of creators and millions of viewer hours, the following are in a league of their own in terms of streaming popularity.

 League of Legends

At least five games ranked ahead of League of Legends in total streams on Twitch through the first seven months of 2025, but the online battle arena game by far had the most combined viewer hours at nearly 49 million. No other game had more than 19 million viewer hours. League, which it is commonly known as, accounted for more than 58% of all viewer hours, according to the website Gamesight.io.

Developed by Riot Games, League is a multiplayer PC game in which teams of five players compete against each other with the goal of destroying the opposing team's “Nexus.” Matches in this flagship game mode, known as “Summoner's Rift,” can last anywhere from 15 minutes to more than an hour.

The New York Times once dubbed League as the “main attraction” of esports. Riot Games has been hosting a world championship event since 2011. By 2016, online viewership of this event surpassed the World Series (MLB) and Stanley Cup (NHL) games that year. There was a $2.225 million prize pool for the Worlds 2024, a tournament with 20 invited teams that spanned several stages and culminated at The O2 Arena in London.

Valorant

Valorant ranked second in Gamesight.io's li st of the most viewer hours on Twitch and was also second in hours streamed (652,183) and third in total streams (329,283). In addition, it had the third-most Twitch creators (117,172) behind only Fortnite (293,553) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (127,245).

Like League, Valorant is a Riot Games production that features 5v5 play with the goal of destroying the opposing team's base. Matches in this format, known as Unrated, are a best-of-25 format, with the first team to earn 13 points securing the victory. Other game modes include Spike Rush, Swiftplay, and Team Deathmatch. It was released for PC in 2020 and ported to Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 in 2024.

Valorant won Best Streaming Game at the 2023 Golden Joystick Awards. Riot Games organizes an annual Champions Tour with multiple tiers and regional competitions. The highest tier, VALORANT Champions, had a $2.25 million prize pool in 2024.

Fortnite

 Available on PC, console, and mobile, Fortnite is a free-to-play battle royale game in which up to 100 players compete to be the last person standing. This was the inaugural game-play mode, although others have since been released, including Save the World, Lego Fortnite, and Fortnite Ballistic. First released by Epic Games in 2017, the game attracted a global base of more than 125 million players within its first year and won several awards in 2018, including Fan Favorite eSports Game at the Gamers' Choice Awards.

Fortnite ranked fifth in viewer hours on Twitch in 2025, but it was first in total streams (804,162) and the only title with more than 1 million hours streamed.

 Counter-Strike

 First released in 2000, Counter-Strike is the legacy title on which Riot Games based Valorant. In this objective-based, first-person shooter, players on opposing teams compete to finish tasks like rescuing hostages or planting bombs. There have been several subsequent releases, including Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (2004) and Counter-Strike 2 (2023).

There are several different in-person tournaments for Counter-Strike. Global Offensive is the most popular title in 2025, with more than 16 million viewer hours from more than 166,000 Twitch streams.