Why most — but not all — Esports World Cup stakeholders consider the event a success

“KPIs are great; numbers are fantastic,” said Esports World Cup Foundation CEO Ralf Reichert. “We’re happy.”

Room for improvement

Growth notwithstanding, there was still room for improvement in the Esports World Cup’s viewership numbers — particularly given the high production costs of the event, which included a record-breaking $60 million prize pool and millions more in organizing and administrative fees. 

Although the EWC’s “League of Legends” tournament brought in an impressive 1.1 million peak viewers, for example, the event was only the fourth-most-watched “League” tournament of 2024, beaten out by competitions such as the Riot-Games-run Mid-Season Invitational.

The Esports World Cup’s organizers are leaning into non-viewership key performance indicators to demonstrate its success. In an interview with Digiday last week, EWC CEO Ralf Reichert mentioned twice that tourism to the Saudi capital of Riyadh had seen a 30 percent bump this year, drawing a line between that increase and the excitement around the Esports World Cup.

“It was made very clear that the wider industry, as well as the local government, is right behind this,” said Esports World Cup Foundation CEO Ralf Reichert. “And this is a good, stable thing, right?”

Government ties

The close relationship between the Saudi Arabian government and the Esports World Cup has been a source of controversy since the event was announced in 2023. Some members of the esports community have protested or boycotted the event due to Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations against women and LGBTQ people, framing the EWC as an example of “esportswashing” intended to distract gamers from the serious issues. 

The EWC’s brand sponsors certainly recognize its ties with the Saudi Arabian government as well — but for them, it’s a reason to buy in. Though Reichert said that building ties with Saudi Arabia was not a direct selling point for the Esports World Cup’s partnership business, he acknowledged that “any major sport event being clearly endorsed by governments obviously gives it a certain relevance; I’m absolutely sure that this is true for this as well.”

For Amazon, developing closer ties with the Saudi Arabian community — and supporting the Saudi government — were explicit goals of the company’s sponsorship of the Esports World Cup.

“We’re very much aligned with Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 and supporting the local community. This is really Amazon’s persona in every locale they operate in; we are closer to the community, closer to the customer,” said Ahmed AlBrahim, Amazon’s retail category leader for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “So we thought this is very much an exciting opportunity to support esports in Saudi and get closer to this exciting new generation of customers.”

Much like the organizers of the event, Amazon focused more on its intangible benefits rather than the hard viewership numbers. However, AlBrahim said that Amazon had taken note of the reportedly high engagement that the event received both online and in person.

“Overall, the esports tournament in Saudi was a successful event, and we really feel strong about it,” he said. “We really look forward for future collaborations in that manner, but we’ll keep assessing any opportunity that will get us closer to Saudi Arabia, to the local community.” 

Returning to Riyadh

Many of the esports teams that competed at the Esports World Cup also viewed the event as a success, with some benefiting from both a cut of prize money and cash infusions from the EWC Club Program. However, not all competitors believed they had equal opportunities to take advantage. Due to the event’s focus on established esports organizations rather than national teams, regions such as Africa, which have relatively few prominent esports teams, felt largely left out of the conversation.

“Africa wasn’t represented; it was more of a big boys club,” said Ikechukwu Okoye, the secretary general of the Nigeria Esports Federation, who told Digiday that he has higher hopes for the official Olympic esports competition taking place in Riyadh next year. “Cloud9 is one of the esports clubs in the World Cup, and the valuation, last time I checked, is about $350 million or so. I mean, that’s not something we can connect with or understand. An esports club worth that much money; how could we even compete?”

Next year, the Esports World Cup is coming back to Riyadh — a return that is likely to buoy the event’s finances thanks both to sponsors’ interest in building Saudi Arabian ties and to the steep country hosting fee paid by the Saudi government. But with the success of the EWC tied so closely to its placement in Saudi Arabia, it remains up in the air whether the event will be hosted elsewhere in the future, becoming a truly international affair akin to the FIFA World Cup. 

“We have a long-term relationship with Riyadh and Saudi, so we haven’t spoken to any other hosts for the short-term, and the Esports World Cup is announced to come back next year,” Reichert said. “But, as indicated before in other interviews, it definitely is a scenario that is possible, and will be engaged in the future.”