Esports genres explained: Everything you need to know

The esports genre is incredibly vast, attracting thousands of new players and millions of viewers every single year. However, it’s not just a facet of gaming that’s beholden to only one type of game. The esports scene is home to not only MOBAs, fighting games, RTS titles, and shooters but many other releases that you may not be immediately aware of. 

We’re going over all the types of esports games available in 2025 so you can have the full picture of what’s available to watch and play, with insights on the popular tournaments for each esports sub-genre, with considerations made to the prize pools, their history, and analysis of the popular games. 

Fighting games (and the Fighting Game Community) have been a staple of the esports genre for decades, being one of the oldest forms of competitive video games, predating many others in the scene. Fighting games emerged in the arcades in the early 1980s but gained popularity in the 1990s with landmark releases such as Street Fighter 2 and Tekken, which saw a budding competitive scene. 

The first fighting game tournament was held in 1994 (more than 30 years ago) at Trocadero before going national in 1996 with the B3: Battle by the Bay, which saw 40 high-level contenders go at it. 

In 2025, fighting games are among the most popular types of esports games, with the likes of EVO (Evolution Championship Series), CEO (Community Effort Orlando), UFG (Ultimate Fighting Game), and VSFighting being among the top tournaments. 

Fighting games played at the highest level currently include Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Guilty Gear Strive, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising, Mortal Kombat 1, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Virtual Fighter 5, Rivals of Aether II, The King of Fighters XV, and BlazBlue: Central Fiction. 

Real-time strategy games have been synonymous with esports game categories since the inception of video games themselves. 

It’s believed that the first RTS tournament was held in 1972, with the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics taking place at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The event was even backed by Rolling Stone magazine. Many consider it the first esports competition in history, and the genre has shown no signs of slowing down since. 

There’s no shortage of RTS games to play and watch at the highest competitive level, with genre mainstays including the perennially popular StarCraft 2 (developed by Blizzard) and Age of Empires 4 (by Relic Entertainment), which have won favor for their complex gameplay. 

Warcraft 3 and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 remain popular esports games as well, and you’ll find these releases at popular tournaments like Clash of Immortals, EGC (Elite Gaming Channel), ASL (Advanced Squad Leader), and Red Bull Wololo, among others. 

No esports genre list would be complete without detailing the dominance of MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas). Without question, it’s the most watched (and most profitable) type of esports game in the scene, with standout releases including League of Legends, Dota 2, Smite, Arena of Valor, Heroes of the Storm, and Deadlock. 

A relatively new genre in comparison to some others on our list, the first MOBA tournament was held in 2011, with DreamHack in Sweden hosting the League of Legends Season 1 World Championship. 

Since then, MOBAs have exploded in popularity and profit for everyone involved. Some of the richest esports stars in the world made their fortune with this esports genre, including Johan “NOtail” Sundstein, making over $7 million playing Dota 2, and Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok raking up nearly $2 million with his League of Legends winnings to date. 

The largest MOBA tournaments are focused on these two games, with the Dota 2 International and the League of Legends World Championships being the most-viewed esports events year-on-year. 

Nearly 7 million people watched last year’s LoL final, which had a staggering prize pool of $2,225,000. This year, Riot Games has announced an even bigger $5 million prize pool for the World Championship 2025.

FPS games are prime candidates for the esports genre for their high skill ceiling for players and exciting viewing for fans. For nearly 30 years, FPS games have been played competitively, with the first esports FPS tournament believed to be Red Annihilation, focusing on Quake, in 1997. 

Id Software’s 3D arena shooter took the world by storm for its advanced movement, atmosphere, and weapon selection. Since then, we’ve seen the rise of Valve’s Counter-Strike series, with CS 1.6 thriving in the competitive scene for more than 25 years since the 2001 Cyberathlete Professional League Championship. 

Popular esports games in the FPS genre now include Overwatch 2, CS2, Apex Legends, The Finals, VALORANT, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty, Escape from Tarkov, and more. VALORANT and CS2 are among the most-played esports FPS games, with the former hosting the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) and the latter privy to the likes of the Counter-Strike Major Championships (still running) as well as events like IEM Katowice, PGL Cluj-Napoca, ESL Pro League, Skyesports Masters, the DACH CS Masters, and the A1 Gaming League. 

The battle royale genre rose to prominence with the release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) in 2017, with the first PUBG Invitational being held at that year’s Gamescom event with a $350,000 prize pool. 

Since then, the PUBG Global Championships have been held yearly, with last year’s event seeing 28 teams fighting for a prize pool of $3,000,000. 

Epic Games’ Fortnite was released that same year, exploding in popularity and eclipsing the genre forefather. The inaugural Fortnite World Cup finals, which took place in 2019, had a staggering prize pool of $30 million across the entire two-day event. 

PUBG and Fortnite may be the biggest examples of esports games in this sub-genre, but they’re far from the only battle royales played at the highest level. 

That’s because Call of Duty Warzone, Apex Legends, and Warface remain popular alternatives; newer releases such as Naraka: Bladepoint have seen success with their World Championship events since. 

The prize pool for NetEase’s battle royale stood at $1,500,000, showing that you’re not necessarily confined to watching (or playing) the two biggest names in the genre to have a shot at stardom. 

While not necessarily as large as some of the best esports games played on PC or console, the mobile gaming market remains massive, and esports mobile games remain popular in 2025 Some of the titles making waves in the scene include PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Honor of Kings, Free Fire, Brawl Stars, Call of Duty: Mobile, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale.

Just because they’re games played on mobile phones doesn’t mean there’s not money in the genre. For example, the Clash of Clans World Championships and the Honor of Kings Championship (now known as KC) both had prize pools of $1,000,000, respectively. 

The Free Fire World Series (FFWS) upped the ante with a total prize pool of $2,000,000, and many of these mobile games will be played in the upcoming Esports World Cup, which has a projected total record-breaking prize pool of $70 million. 

Sports simulation games are some of the biggest seen in the esports genre, with frontrunners including EA FC (formerly FIFA FC), Madden NFL, NBA 2K, eFootball (formerly Pro Evolution Soccer), and Rocket League among some of the most-watched and successful of their class. 

For example, the FC Pro World Championship has a prize pool of $1,000,000, which is eclipsed by the NBA 2K League prize pool of $2,500,000 (split across the tournaments and playoffs of the season). 

While not your traditional sports simulation, the Rocket League Championship Series features a staggering yearly global prize pool of over $5 million for its finals, which sees 32 teams compete in a single elimination bracket before advancing to the last round. 

Without such a large backing as its contemporaries, the eFootball Championship Open has a much smaller first-place prize pool of just $20,000 for its winners, showing the vast differences across this esports game category. 

As with their real-life counterparts, simulation racing games can garner huge attention from sponsorships, often resulting in larger prize pools than we would otherwise see, given the viewer figures and number of participants. For example, F1 Sim Racing (formerly the F1 Esports Series) has a prize pool of $750,000 with the latest entries in the long-running racing franchise, like F1 24 and F1 25, which are updated annually. 

It’s not just F1 titles that have an esports backing; that’s because many other simulation racing games are played competitively, including iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Gran Turismo 7, RaceRoom, and Project Cars 3, among others. 

With Sony’s official backing, the Gran Turismo World Series sees a massive prize pool of $3,000,000, making it one of the more lucrative racing games to compete in. However, to play any of these games, you will need the investment of a proper racing setup, including a seat, pedals, a steering wheel, and force feedback instead of just a controller or keyboard and mouse combo. 

Esports game genres are as vast to play as they are to watch, with varying prize pools, attendance numbers, and viewer figures across the myriad of different games in each sub-genre available in 2025. 

MOBAs and FPS games remain among the most popular esports titles, whereas fighting games and RTS games are consistent performers with major tournament backing going back decades. 

With so many games to watch and play, there’s a spot in esports for just about anyone, and it’s not platform-specific either; console, PC, and mobile users are equally valid in the scene.