Most popular women’s esports ecosystems

Women’s esports has witnessed a massive surge in popularity with stakeholders investing in various initiatives to boost the participation of women in the scene.

2023 marked several advancements in women’s esports, with the total watch time for female esports broadcasts clocking 28m hours, according to esports data platform Esports Charts. Peak viewership for women’s esports also surged by more than 198%, from 392,400 (2022) to 1.37m peak viewers (2023).

Gen.G, Luminosity, Dignitas and G2 Esports are known for signing women’s rosters across a variety of competitive titles, with the latter already securing two VCT Game Changers Stage championships in 2024. UK-based organisation Guild Esports are also a prominent team in the scene, working to bolster esports with a series of women’s tournaments.

In this article, Esports Insider takes a look at the most popular women’s esports ecosystems around the world.

VALORANT is arguably the most popular, and robust, female esports ecosystem in the list due to its viewership figures and significant prize pools.

Efforts to create a more inclusive esports title were made by publisher Riot Games quickly after the game’s launch in 2020. With the VCT Game Changers initiative, Riot solidified its intent to organise inclusive women-led events within the VALORANT ecosystem in 2021, less than a year after the game debuted its beta.

In terms of peak viewing figures, the Game Changers’ two World Championships in 2022 and 2023 have garnered 239,334 and 293,993 viewers, respectively. This undoubtedly makes it the most popular PC women’s scene with only Mobile Legends: Bang Bang reaching higher viewing figures.

Highlighting the scene’s development, VCT Game Changers Championship 2023 took place in Sao Paulo Brazil and was a culmination of a series of online and offline qualifiers across multiple regions.

Outside of Riot Games’ ecosystem, standalone VALORANT tournaments such as the UK’s 2024 Red Bull Instalock display a rapidly increasing interest in advancing the game’s female esports scene. Shopify Rebellion, Team Liquid Brazil and G2 Gozen’s popularity following their performances at VALORANT Game Changers Championships over the years proves that women’s esports can be a successful venture if the right platform and initiatives are provided. The development of Game Changers has also led to VALORANT introducing major rule changes that provide an easier path to Challengers (tier two) and International (tier one) leagues for Game Changers players.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a mobile MOBA title known for its immense popularity within Southeast Asia. Not only that, it has one of esports’ biggest women’s competitive scenes to date. 

The game’s publisher, Moonton, a subsidiary of Tiktok’s parent company ByteDance, is largely responsible for organising esports tournaments within the scene. The MLBB women’s tournament at the 32 SEA Games in 2023 also established itself as the most viewed women’s esports event of all time, with a peak viewership of 1.37m viewers.

The viewership statistics for MLBB tournaments revealed a massive appetite for female esports in Asia, especially in the SEA region. Overall, seven of the top 10 most popular women’s esports events are from Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, with the other three being from VALORANT. This has generated interest from multiple stakeholders across the esports industry. 

Team Vitality recently acquired leading women’s Indonesian roster Bigetron Era ahead of the 2024 MLBB Women’s Invitational (MWI) event at the Esports World Cup (EWC). MWI at the EWC this year will feature a prize pool of $500,000 (~£393,500), the biggest prize pool ever in women’s esports. 

At the 2023 SEA Games, women’s esports was also given the spotlight as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang featured a women’s category for the event. It’s worth noting that esports at the SEA Games is an officially medalled category alongside a host of other traditional sport disciplines. 

Perhaps surprisingly, a report from Niko Partners displayed that, 53% of gamers in Southeast Asia were female. Moonton’s initiatives with its MOBA title have given women gamers a platform to prove their mettle, causing female esports to flourish under SEA’s mobile-centric gaming infrastructure.

One of esports’ most popular FPS’, Counter-Strike has developed a solid structure for female players with the inclusion of the ESL Impact circuit and several other women-led tournaments.

According to Esports Charts, CS:GO accounted for 23.4% of the total prize pool share allocated for women’s esports in 2023. This is largely due to tournament initiatives such as the ESL Impact as well as the IESF Female World Esports Championships. The IESF Female World Championship 2024 will have a prize pool of $160,000 (~£126,300), with both ESL Impact Season 5 and 6 each offering $123,000 (~£97,100) prize pools.

The Valve FPS franchise was a launching pad for some of the highest-earning female esports players of all time. Julia ‘juliano’ Kiran, Michael ‘mimi’ Lintrup and Petra ‘Petra’ Stoker are notable women athletes who have won World Championships in two different esports franchises: CS:GO and VALORANT.

Published by Epic Games, Fortnite is among the leading battle royale esports titles in the Western world. 

Alongside Fortnite’s own in-game activations, esports stakeholders such as Gen.G, eFuse, and Raidiant have launched various projects to broaden its female Fortnite esports scene.

In 2024, Dairy conglomerate Gonna Need Milk announced The Milk Cup, a $250,000 (~£197,300) women’s tournament with 400 female participants from across the United States. The Milk Cup has the largest-ever prize pool for a women’s Fortnite competition as of this writing. 

In terms of recurring women’s Fortnite tournaments, Women of the eRena is a prominent circuit that pits the best female teams across the ecosystem to compete for its $75,000 (~£59,200) prize pool. In 2019, Gen.G also secured a notable partnership with dating app Bumble to acquire an all-female Fortnite roster, however, this project has since concluded.

Female content creators such as Kittyplays, ironmouse and Kayla ‘Sommerset’ Coy have garnered immense popularity within the Fortnite ecosystem, with the latter recently placing 1st in Qualifiers for the Milk Cup. In 2023, ironmouse hosted a standalone $15,000 (~£11,800) Fortnite tournament called the Zero Build Invitational. The Vtuber also won the Content Creator of The Year at the 2023 Game Awards.

With a women’s Rocket League show match at the 2023 Olympic Esports Week and a tournament at the Commonwealth Esports Championship 2022, developer Psyonix and other organisations such as BLAST are working to advance the female Rocket League ecosystem.

With an in-game event celebrating Women’s History Month in 2023, developer Psyonix is keen on advancing women’s Rocket League. The developer also backed the $10,000 Women In Rocket League (WIRL) tournament and the Ally Women’s Open in 2023. 

Guild Esports’ partnership with broadcaster Sky UK has resulted in multiple women-centric initiatives, including the Boost Championship in late 2023. Moreover, G2 Luna, Luminosity Gaming and Dignitas are the notable female teams in the women’s RL ecosystem.

Rocket League’s share in women’s prize pools looks to increase with multiple events lined up for 2024, including the $75,000 (~£59,200) Star Chasers Showdown. Banking conglomerate Ally Financial has also partnered with BLAST and Radiant to create Star Chasers Showdown, a women’s Rocket League tournament with offline and online matches across Europe and North America. 

Women-led broadcast provider Raidiant is known for backing multiple Rocket League events including 2023’s Ally Women’s Open and this year’s Star Chasers Showdown cups.

Psyonix’s competitive title has also made a mark in collegiate esports, with West Virginia University announcing a female Rocket League Varsity team in 2023. ESL-owned Dreamhack also ventured into the world of female Rocket League esports with a $20,000 (~£15,745) ‘Rocket Clash’ tournament featuring the best rosters in the world. 

Outside of esports, female content creators are among the top personalities in the Rocket League ecosystem. In 2020, Twitch streamer and content creator Athena had a skill mechanic called the ‘Athena flick’ named after her.