{"id":92075,"date":"2016-05-19T08:57:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-19T06:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=92075"},"modified":"2016-05-19T08:58:49","modified_gmt":"2016-05-19T06:58:49","slug":"the-biggest-competitive-video-games-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/92075-the-biggest-competitive-video-games-in-history","title":{"rendered":"The biggest competitive video games in history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While many gamers enjoy relaxing with a co-op or singleplayer title, others are fiercely competitive and live to become the very best in their chosen game.<\/p>\n<p>Some games lend themselves better to this competitive gameplay than others &#8211; focusing on balanced mechanics and high skill ceilings instead of immersion or story line.<\/p>\n<p>eSports has seen a massive boost in growth throughout the world, with new competitive games seeing bigger tournaments and more interest from gamers.<\/p>\n<p>We took a look at the biggest competitive video games in the world, ranked by total lifetime prize money awarded (according to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.esportsearnings.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">esportsearnings.com<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Dota 2<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R948,344,862 ($60,628,883)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dota 2 is unquestionably the biggest competitive game in terms of prize money awarded. The\u00a0MOBA features countless tournaments each year, including Valve&#8217;s International tournament &#8211; which boasts prize pools north of 10 million dollars each year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/idEUCU6SDoU\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>League of Legends<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R449,097,319 ($28,711,358)<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>League of Legends is the biggest competitor to Dota 2 in prize money, although it still maintains a larger\u00a0player base than Valve&#8217;s MOBA.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ukNZsidFngs\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>StarCraft II<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R297,816,227 ($19,039,767)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>StarCraft II is the sequel to the highly-competitive StarCraft game, developed by Blizzard. The game is perceived as the ultimate in competitive real-time strategy games, and has an esxeptionally high skill ceiling.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3XBQmJ6A96A\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R212743855 ($13,600,983)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the fastest-growing games on the competitive\u00a0scene, and is built upon the premise\u00a0of the original Counter-Strike mod, which saw massive success in the early days of eSports.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_sPNAeG5SCM\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Counter-Strike<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R168,376,030 ($10,764,492)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Originally developed as a mod for Half-Life, Counter-Strike quickly evolved into a pure competitive shooter that focussed on skilled, fast-paced gameplay.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qwsQ7TEnUKc\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Starcraft: Brood War<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R105,207,700 ($6,726,061)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Starcraft: Brood War is\u00a0the predecessor to StarCraft II, and was the original competitive real-time strategy game. Blizzard created a balanced game with a high skill ceiling that challenged players for years after its release.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gj7elxRwLes\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Smite<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R84,438,612 ($5,398,267)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Smite is a relatively recent arrival on the eSports scene. The game has only recently begun to see tournaments and leagues, and it is already catching up to its competition. Smite is a unique take on the MOBA genre, featuring a different player perspective than the classic top-down view.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RCU5Oe_5D_w\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R66,994,064 ($4,283,015)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hearthstone: Heroes of WarCraft is a trading card game developed by Blizzard. The game has been successful due to its free-to-play model and accessibility.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NT965XFnOP0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>WarCraft III<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R63,509,774 ($4,060,260)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>WarCraft III is another classic game developed by Blizzard. Although it had a reasonably large competitive scene, the game&#8217;s biggest achievement was producing a popular mod named Dota, which went on to become the biggest competitive game in the world.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vLveyLocTYM\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Heroes of the Storm<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Total prize money awarded: R59,621,301 ($3,811,665)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Heroes of the Storm is yet another addition to the crowded MOBA genre. Featuring heroes from all of Blizzard&#8217;s games, the title has been rising in popularity and has a number of dedicated competitions which boast large prize pools<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g5vF9JLucFo\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More gaming news<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to The insane HP laptop which will cost you R140,000\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/91997-the-insane-hp-laptop-which-will-cost-you-r140000.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">The insane HP laptop which will cost you R140,000<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Watch the first trailer for the Assassin\u2019s Creed movie\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/entertainment\/92089-watch-the-first-trailer-for-the-assassins-creed-movie.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Watch the first trailer for the Assassin\u2019s Creed movie<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to Competitive gaming battle in South Africa: MSSA vs pro gamers\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/91693-competitive-gaming-battle-in-south-africa-mssa-vs-pro-gamers.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Competitive gaming battle in South Africa: MSSA vs pro gamers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Take a look at the biggest and most lucrative competitive games in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":92079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[18657,289,6385,2218,1611,11962,631,18659,5276,6269],"class_list":["post-92075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-biggest","tag-competitive-gaming","tag-csgo","tag-dota-2","tag-esports","tag-hearthstone","tag-league-of-legends","tag-prize-money","tag-smite","tag-starcraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92375,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92075\/revisions\/92375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}