Esports catapulted onto the scene in 1972 and it has never looked back. Although it took until the early 2000s for it to properly kick-off, the rise of the internet and broadband made virtual sports accessible across the globe. By the year 2000, the FIFA series had gone on to sell over 16 million units worldwide, and it forged itself as the most popular football video game of our generation. Created by everyone’s favorite EA Sports, the game managed to get its sales to 100 million copies by 2010, which is when the FIFA Interactive World Cup was born. It has seen many different iterations and changes over the years, but it remains immensely popular.
There are plenty of names and games that have cemented themselves as leaders of the esports genre, like Counter-Strike, DOTA 2, and many more – but one game that fills everyone’s home is FIFAe. You don’t have to look too far among the millennial and Gen Z market to see vast percentages of gamers playing with their favorite football stars. The game, however, has seen some controversy in recent years, with the branding “FIFA” having to be left behind by this famous video game. Though 2023’s edition is just the same, if not better, the name has changed to EA Sports FC 24 due to copyright issues. FIFA on its own is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which is the international governing body of football across the globe. And although esports is used to seeing the name FIFA emblazon the leaderboards, we’ll have to adjust to their new branding. At least there are still some very attractive packs and rewards on offer!
FIFA viewers managed to amass a record 339,988 viewers in 2023, making this mighty game as popular as ever. In honor of this recent name change, we’re going to take a tour down memory lane and look at the biggest tournaments for FIFA in esports – pre-rebrand.
Fourth Place: eChampions League
As we go down the list from bottom to top, the number four on the list is the eChampions League. If you didn’t already know, they have the Champions League like in physical football, but at the touch of your fingertips. The tournament features eight of the biggest and best individual esports FIFA players, who have fought to get through tricky qualifying rounds. The biggest prize for this tournament so far in its history was in 2022, where there was $225 thousand set as the cash prize.
From familiar faces like Tekkz and nicolas99fc who fought in the final for the ultimate cash prize, to some of eFIFAS’ biggest viewer statistics yet, the eChampions League was huge. It was held in Istanbul, Turkey, and it was one of the game’s biggest tournaments yet. The prize pool was huge, but the bets were even bigger, and bettors went wild over the opportunity to place a wager on their favorite players. The fast evolution of esports is in part thanks to the widespread interest in betting, and now with the rise of esports betting crypto, you can wager on your favorite winning team using cryptocurrency, enjoying security and privacy, and perhaps taking home some big bucks. Let’s hope you put it all on nicolas99fc to win!
Third place: FIFAe Nations Cup
Featuring the top five nations across the globe, the FIFAe Nations Cup saw these countries fighting for the FIFA title. The 2022 tournament saw 24 nations like Portugal, the UK, the UAE, and India all battle against each other for a prize pool worth $400,000. The tournament consists of 2 vs 2 tournaments and starts with two rounds for each team. The biggest solo prize so far in this tournament was the 2022 edition, where Brazil beat Poland and grabbed the $120,000 cash for their team.
Second place: FIFAe Club World Cup 2022
Don’t confuse it for the top spot, as that’s for the World Cup, but the Club World Cup 2022 is almost as big! Held every year, the event brings a different twist to the World Cup, as it has two vs two players, who all represent their sports teams, instead of their nation. The 24 sports teams that partook in the tournament went up against each other to snatch the impressive $300,000 cash prize. Some of the biggest names in esports were there, like Ninjas in Pyjamas, who play in every tournament and are always partial to a dabble or three in CS:GO.
First place: FIFAe World Cup
The biggest and best esports tournament for FIFA is the FIFAe World Cup. This number one event of the year is a one vs one tournament, and it had a whopping $500,000 prize pool for the 2022 tournament – looks like all the big events were being generous with the cash in that year! Teams are always split into four groups of eight teams, and placed into elimination playoffs to get to the top.
In 2022, the world-renowned Umut, from Germany, competed against nicolas99fc, and fell at the last hurdle to the Argentinean sportsman. Just with that win, Nicolas99FC walked away with $250,000 of the prize pool and another win under his belt.
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