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What are the best esports games right now?
The world of esports is continually growing, with competitive gaming fast becoming the future of entertainment, bringing about the need to look into the best competitive games as of 2021.
GamingTell takes a look.
Let’s get to the countdown.
RELATED: Top-10 Best Battle Royale Games
The Best Competitive Games: Top Esports Games
10. Rainbow Six Siege
On our list, at number 10, is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.
The first-person tactical shooter game allows players to use different operators from the rainbow team, made up of the world’s top counter-terrorism operative.
These operatives are usually from different nationalities, having various gadgets and weapons.
What makes the game so interesting is that players get to create siege situations in a destructive environment.
Since its announcement and release in 2015, Rainbow Six Siege has received very favorable reviews and is fast becoming one of the esports’ best competitive games.
A total of $11.3 million has been awarded in prize money across 211 tournaments.
9. Heroes of the Storm
Blizzard Entertainment’s Heroes of the Storm takes the 9th spot on our best competitive games list.
It revolves around a 5-man team versus another 5-man team match via its online gaming service battle.net.
Team players work together to destroy the opponent team’s lines of defenses (forts and keeps) and ultimately destroy their primary structure, also known as “Core,” before the opponents can do the same.
What attracts people to the game is its playable characters and battleground from Blizzard’s other successful franchises like Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.
Since its release in 2015, over 450 tournaments have been played with some tournament prize pools being as high as $1 million.
The South Koreans have been kicking asses in various tournaments since they occupy the top-5 positions of the highest earners list, with the total prize pool in 457 tournaments at over $18.1 million.
8. Hearthstone
Hearthstone, formerly called Heroes of Warcraft, was built upon the World of Warcraft Universe.
Hearthstone is a turn-based collectible card game that usually pits two players against each other.
Each player chooses a unique hero from 10 classes, with each class having different cards of flaws and abilities, which are known as hero power.
Each deck consists of four types of cards: the hero card, the minions’ card, the weapons, and the spell cards.
The primary goal is to reduce your opponents’ health using your selected hero and all the cards in your deck.
With over 100 million active players on Blizzard Entertainment’s online platform, Hearthstone has become one of the top esports games, with tournaments held at numerous events.
Blizzard even hosts the annual Hearthstone World Championships, which has a massive prize pool of $1 million.
7. Overwatch
Overwatch is another excellent team-based multiplayer and first-person shooter game published by Blizzard Entertainment.
Players choose their heroes from a list of 30 characters from three sets of classes: Tank Heroes (absorbs large amounts of damage), Damage Heroes (defends against and attack enemies), and Support Heroes (provides health buffs and other kinds of support for the team).
The players of a team work together to secure control points found on maps in the game.
Like most Blizzard games, Overwatch was widely received and became a fan favorite, with the company reporting over a billion dollars in revenue in its first year of release with over 50 million players.
Overwatch has also been a hotshot in esports, with tournament prize pools being as high as $3.5 million.
6. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)
PUBG features a player vs. player online shooter game, where a hundred players parachute to an island in a last-man-standing deathmatch.
Players have to scavenge for weapons while shooting other players and trying to survive.
Usually, players can play solo, as a duo or as a team of up to four players.
The players’ characters jump out of a plane wearing parachutes into 1 of four mapped areas of different sizes.
As the game goes on, the playable area begins to shrink to a particular location with players outside the safe area boundaries, taking damages continuously until they get to the safe zone or get killed.
Since its release in 2017, PUBG has had a total prize pool of $22.5 million in 260 tournaments.
5. StarCraft II
Blizzard’s StarCraft II is set in a distant part of the milky way galaxy sometime in the 26th century.
The plot takes place in a universe of three dominant species; the Terrans, exiled humans, the Zergs, and a super-specie made up of assimilated life forms.
And the Protoss, who have extraordinary mental abilities and massive technological advancements.
The military science fiction real-time strategy game is split into three installments, each focusing on one of the three species in the game.
The first installment in the Wings of Liberty, which concentrates on the Terrans; the second is Heart of the Swarm, focusing on the Zergs and finally, the Legacy of the Void, telling the Protoss’ tale.
StarCraft II has become a mainstay in esports, with the Koreans taking 17 of the top 20 spots on tournament earners rankings.
A total of $32.7 million has been paid out in prize money in 5742 tournaments.
4. League of Legends
League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game.
It currently consists of two game modes: The Howling Abyss and The Summoner’s Rift, with players competing in matches that last anywhere from 20 to 50 minutes.
Each game mode has teams working together to bypass lines of defensive tower structures called Turrets to destroy the enemy’s Nexus and win the match.
3. Fortnite Battle Royale
Fortnite was released in 2017, and it was in three different versions.
The first version is Fortnite Save the World, an online co-op shooter-survival game where players fight off zombies and defend fortifications.
Second is Fortnite Creative, where players get to create worlds battle arenas.
The third is Fortnite Battle Royale, where players get to battle each other in a deathmatch with one player left standing.
The first two were quite successful when they were released, but the most successful, with over 125 million active players, is Battle Royale.
With tournaments being organized at literally every event and tournament prize pools reaching as high as $15 million for a single tournament.
2. Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS-GO)
CS-Go is an online multiplayer first-person shooter game that sees two teams of players pit against each other, with one team being the Terrorists and the Counter-Terrorist.
Both teams are tasked with eliminating each other while also trying to complete different tasks and objectives.
The Terrorists plant bombs and defend hostages while the Counter-Terrorists try to rescue the hostages and defuse bombs or prevent the Terrorists from planting the bombs.
With over 11 million active players each month, it was not long after its release in 2012 before joining the ranks of successful competitive games.
1. Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2)
With a total prize pool of a mammoth $220 million in just seven years, Valve’s Dota 2 takes the top spot on our list.
Its premier competition, The International, is the competition every esports team looks forward to.
The multiplayer online battle arena game pits two teams of five players, each in a deathmatch.
The primary objective is to defend your base while slowly taking down the opponent’s defenses and reaching the enemy’s Ancient, which is the source of your opponent’s power.
As soon as the enemy’s Ancient is destroyed, your team wins.
This fun game allows you to explore 117 different heroes with some unique magical abilities.
Summary
Here’s a quick recap of the best competitive games in the world right now.
- Defense of the Ancients 2
- Counter-Strike Global Offensive (CS-GO)
- Fortnite Battle Royale
- League of Legends
- StarCraft II
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG)
- Overwatch
- Hearthstone
- Heroes of the Storm
- Rainbow Six Siege
Please feel free to share your thoughts on these top esports games in our comments section below.