Home Esports World Cup

Leo Migdal

-Nov 19, 2025, 5:00 PM

The 2025 Esports World Cup is an upcoming multi-game esports tournament held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, hosted by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF) and ESL FACEIT Group. It is the second edition of the Esports World Cup, a tournament series announced in late 2023 as a rebranding and expansion of Gamers8. Each game has its own independent structure for qualifying, but the championship series for each title forms part of the Esports World Cup. Alongside the competitions in the games, there is a Club Competition across all games for participating organizations. On February 1st, 2024, the EWCF announced the Esports World Cup Club Program "designed to promote sustainable planning" for organizations.[1] Selected organizations are eligible for an annual six-figure payout to support their operations, as... These organizations are also able to gain financial rewards based on their performance in driving viewership and fan engagement to the event.

Being a part of the Club Support program does not guarantee participation in the EWC tournaments; teams still need to qualify for the Esports World Cup on their own merit. A prizepool of $27,000,000 USD is awarded to the top 24 organizations in the Club Championship, with the winning team gaining $7,000,000 USD. Each event awarded points to teams within the top 8. To win the Championship however, a team needs to also win at least 1 tournament. [3] The Esports World Cup (EWC) is an annual international esports tournament series run by the Esports World Cup Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

It is considered the largest professional esports event in the world in terms of total prize pool and number of game titles represented, with US$62.5 million awarded across individual tournament prize pools, rewards for... The tournament takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July to August each year.[1][2] The Esports World Cup has its origins in Gamers Without Borders (GWB), a charity esports tournament series run by the Saudi Arabian Federation for Electronic and Intellectual Sport (SAFEIS, with esports later being spun... In 2022, the SEF launched Gamers8, an eight-week gaming and esports festival held in Riyadh's Boulevard City, with Gamers Without Borders serving as a qualifying series in most titles to Gamers8. In 2023, Gamers8 played host to the final FIFAe World Cup held on the FIFA series of video games published by EA Sports, along with introducing the Club Awards, a US$5 million cross-game competition... In September 2023, the EWC and its eponymous Foundation were formally established by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with the inaugural Esports World Cup held the following year as the successor to Gamers8.

The tournament series dramatically increased in scope, with most of the major esports titles present at the event. In addition, the Club Awards were replaced with the Club Championship, a wider US$20 million cross-game competition that aggregates the individual game results of all participating organizations (known as "clubs" to the EWC) to... The inaugural edition was won by Saudi Arabia's Team Falcons. Esport clubs were also given financial incentives via the Club Support Program (later the Club Partner Program). In 2025, the EWC introduced chess as part of its lineup, with Magnus Carlsen serving as the EWC's official chess ambassador, as part of an enlargement of the series to consist of a US$70... The EWC has been criticized as being used as a sportswashing tool by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to distract the esports community from its numerous human rights violations; commentators drew attention to the...

The 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC) was the second edition of the Esports World Cup, an annual international esports tournament series run by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), a nonprofit organization funded by... It took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 8 July to 24 August 2025 and featured 26 events in 25 esports. Making their debuts this year were online chess, fighting game Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, tactical shooters Crossfire and Valorant, and battle royale game Naraka: Bladepoint (as a non-Club Championship title). Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and EA Sports FC 25 succeeded Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and EA Sports FC 24, respectively, in the game lineup.[1] On 18 December 2024, the EWCF announced a new multi-year partnership with Chess.com, adding online chess as part of the EWC lineup. Players qualified through the Champions Chess Tour 2025, consisting of two online Tour events, for a chance at a share of a $1.5 million prize pool.

There will also be an open last chance qualifier to be held during the EWC to fill out the remaining slots in the tournament.[2][3] The addition of online chess also led to some notable... On 23 December 2024, tactical first-person shooter Crossfire was announced as the second new game.[6] On 6 February 2025, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves was added as part of a three-year partnership with... Kenji Matsubara, CEO of SNK, then stated that “this partnership marks a historic milestone for Fatal Fury, a title loved around the world for 30 years, as it steps into the competitive gaming arena.”[7][8]... As part of the partnership, tactical hero shooter Valorant was added to the EWC alongside League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, which were part of last year's lineup.[9][10] Due to their annual release schedules, the Call of Duty and EA Sports FC series were represented by the newest entries in their respective franchises, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and EA Sports... (with EA later announcing the EA Sports FC Pro World Championship would be hosted at EWC).[1] The Garena Free Fire and Rainbow Six Siege events will return as Free Fire and Rainbow Six Siege...

After they were featured in the 2024 EWC, the Fortnite and Strinova events didn't return in 2025.[11] GeoGuessr was announced as part of the Esports World Cup on 15 May 2025, in a similar... However, GeoGuessr instead would use EWC to hold the Wildcard tournament for the GeoGuessr World Cup.[12] On 22 May 2025, GeoGuessr announced its withdrawal from EWC in response to community backlash over concerns regarding... The Esports World Cup (EWC) is the most ambitious and expansive event in esports history. Held annually in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 2025 returns even bigger, bringing together the world’s most competitive games under one tournament umbrella with a record-breaking $70 million prize pool. No previous event has unified so many top-tier titles, genres and regions. The 2025 EWC features 25 games, including chess.

The draws in more than 1,500 elite players from across the globe. As expected, esports staples like League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2 headline the competition, but there’s something for everyone: Tekken 8 and other fighting games are enjoying unprecedented spotlight, and mobile esports, like Free... That jaw-dropping $70 million prize pool is not a typo. While the total is split across all events, it’s still the largest aggregate prize fund in esports history. For comparison, Dota 2’s The International 2021 remains the single largest prize pool for one game at just over $40 million, but the EWC’s scope across dozens of games makes it unmatched in scale. Even long-standing titles like StarCraft II, thought to be past their prime in 2025, are seeing record-setting prize money, thanks to EWC’s broad investment in competitive diversity.

On top of tournament winnings, organizations are also battling in the Club Championship, an overarching contest to crown the most successful multi-game esports org. With $27 million of the $70 million prize pool on the line, teams are incentivized to compete across titles. Orgs will be awarded based on overall performance, with the top org taking a $7 million share. Sixteen teams are travelling to Riyadh to compete for $1.25 million at the Saudi esports festival. It's as simple as it gets: the Esports World Cup will feature 16 teams, 15 of which invited through the VRS plus TYLOO (who earned their spot through winning ACL), competing in a single-elimination... All matches will be played in a best-of-three format except the grand final, which will be a best-of-five clash.

Ahead of the title match, there will be a third-place decider with extra prize money, VRS points and Club Championship (CC) on the line. All matches will be played at Boulevard Riyadh City in front of a crowd. Below you can find the schedule for the Round of 16: The full tournament schedule can be found here. The Esports World Cup is back once again in 2025, bringing together dozens of esports communities to compete for millions of dollars across multiple tournaments. Here’s everything you need to know about the cup.

2024 saw the first official Esports World Cup hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with over $60 million in prizing handed out across multiple different esports titles. From FGC to FPS, MOBAs to sports games, just about every major game was out there. 2025 is bringing even more games into the EWC than last year, and a lot more prize money to boot. Here’s the full schedule for the Esports World Cup, as well as the prizing behind all the main games people will be competing in. In total, the Esports World Cup has $65,550,000 up for grabs across their main tournaments. This is the combined amount from every currently announced tournament prize pool along with the $27 million that’ll be split amongst the best performing orgs across every game featured in the cup.

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