I dare you to find someone nowadays who does not enjoy playing video games. Be it by yourself or with friends, in your favorite gaming console, PC or your phone or tablet, playing video games has become one of the most popular activities in the world. Of course with that said it was only a matter of time until professional and competitive video gaming became a thing and boy has it taken the world by storm, creating the multi-million dollar Esports industry along the way. There are Esports teams and organizations, YouTube and streaming channels, merchandise lines, websites where you can bet on Esports, everything one may want when it comes to professional video gaming.
But with all of this said and coming back to the basic essence of the game, the gaming itself, what are some of the best Esports games all fans, be it amateur or pro should be playing right now? Here’s our list.
Overwatch
Released on May 24, 2016 by Blizzard Entertainment, all gaming fans can agree that Overwatch is one of the best Esports games to ever hit the market. It is so good that there are even talks about bringing this title amongst others to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. This game is a team-based, first-person shooter game that can be played by gamers of all levels. It has multiple competitive settings, bringing both fun and skills to the highest of levels. With one team on the attack and another on defense, the goal is to finish the tasks given to each which are almost always missions that pin both teams against each other with the idea of having dominance over set control points and securing a specific payload.
The game requires elite levels of communication and coordination amongst the competing teams, which is why some of the best Overwatch teams in the world usually compete in the Blizzard Entertainment created Overwatch League competitions. This makes it one of the biggest if not biggest Esports titles currently on the market right now and a definite must for all video gaming fans.
FIFA
We can talk about sports popularity all day long. At the end of the day, every day, soccer will always reign supreme as the most popular sport in the world. And in the Esports world, soccer is the most popular sport in the world as well. So it shouldn’t come as a shock that we put the FIFA franchise game as the second game in our list. Ever since their first edition was launched by EA Sports all the way back in 1993, the FIFA video game has become a staple for sports video gaming fans across the globe.
The Premise of the game is super simple and it can be played both online and offline. You play soccer games against opponents and the main objective is to win the games. You can play all official licensed FIFA tournaments with the best teams and players in the world all at the reach of a controller. With FIFA you can play with an individual player, as a whole club team or an international team, meaning that you can play with the whole team all at once instead of just controlling one character. Official FIFA Esports tournaments have become quite a popular event all around the world with the first ever FIFA eWorld Cup ever played in 2018 hosting 32 players from around the world after over 20 million tried out.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
If you’re looking for the best PC shooting game in the market, then Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a must have! The fourth installment in the Counter-Strike series is known for being one of the most straightforward games around. Each round in the game is played by two teams, terrorists and counter terrorists playing against each other with the task of eliminating each other and completing the objectives given to them along the way. Tasks, like planting bombs and defending hostages if you’re on the terrorist side of the game and defusing bombs, preventing them from being planted and rescuing hostages if you’re on the anti-terrorist team, are all part of the thrills of the game.
The team holds eight different game modes with different features and objectives and while it’s a team effort all players are evaluated and rewarded individually at the end of each round with game used currency being given to the winners so they can upgrade their weapons for example. This game seems simple but it requires extreme precision, timing and knowledge to become an expert, but most of all it requires practice, lots of it. There are CS tournaments around the world with prizes as large as $1 million with teams from all over the world competing for the top spots in the world rankings.
