Esports Milestones

Where it started

The earliest known video game competition took place on October 19, 1972, at Stanford University, where students played Spacewar! for a year's subscription to Rolling Stone. In 1980 Atari's Space Invaders Championship drew more than 10,000 players across the United States and was won by Rebecca Heineman, proof that competitive gaming could go mainstream.

Streaming changed everything. Once YouTube and Twitch let anyone watch live, the 2010s turned esports into a global spectator sport, especially in South Korea and China.

Prize pool records

Valve's Dota 2 championship, The International, began in 2011 with a one million dollar grand prize. From 2013 fans could raise the pot by buying an in-game battle pass, and The International 2021 in Bucharest set the record for any single esports event at 40 million dollars.

At the 2019 Fortnite World Cup in New York's Arthur Ashe Stadium, 16-year-old Kyle Giersdorf, known as Bugha, won the solo final and three million dollars.

Worlds and the Faker era

Riot's League of Legends World Championship grew from a 2011 event at DreamHack to the most-watched show in esports. The 2018 final drew 99.6 million unique viewers. South Korea's T1, led by Lee Sang-hyeok, known as Faker, has won a record six titles, including three in a row from 2023 to 2025, and in 2024 Faker became the first player to win five world championships.

The International Olympic Committee has also discussed esports, with an Olympic Esports Games planned for 2027.

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