Esports World Cup: History and Background

The Esports World Cup (EWC) is an annual international esports tournament series run by the Esports 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 upwards of US$70 million awarded across individual tournament prize pools, rewards for teams that qualify to events, most valuable player awards, and the Club Championship. The 2025 edition featured competitions across more than 25 game titles and 28 club teams. According to the event's organizers, the 2025 event brought together more than 2,500 participants (players and team personnel) from 100 countries.

The tournament takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July to August each year. The 2026 edition was moved to Paris, France.

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 off to become the Saudi Esports Federation) that originally supported charities who played a part in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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 where the best-performing esport clubs across multiple titles were awarded prize money.

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 crown a Club Champion. 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).

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