The Esports World Cup, an annual multi-title esports occasion, has continued its streak of bulletins by confirming a Counter-Strike 2 event for its 2025 version.

Following the announcement of a number of sport titles over the previous few weeks, the FPS title by sport writer Valve was formally added on December sixth, 2024. The format and schedule are but to be revealed, nevertheless, this 12 months’s occasion will function a $1.25m (~£1m) prize pool.

Counter-Strike 2 was a part of Esports World Cup’s inaugural 2024 lineup, with 15 groups competing for the championship and a share of the $1.05m (~£0.82m) prize pool. Natus Vincere (NAVI) got here out victorious within the final event, beating G2 Esports within the grand closing and profitable $400,000 (~£313,564) in addition to 1000 membership championship factors.

The event racked up a peak viewership of 756,764 folks, in response to information platform Esports Charts, with a median of 238,003. As compared, the height viewership in the course of the PGL Main Copenhagen 2024 was 1.8m, which peaked in the course of the grand closing between NAVI and FaZe Clan.

Earlier than the beginning of the 2025 season, CS2 is at present internet hosting a Main in Shanghai, China, the first-ever Counter-Strike Main in Asia.

Different titles already confirmed within the 2025 EWC embrace Valve’s different flagship title Dota 2, Road Fighter 6, cell battle royal sport Free Fireplace, Honor of Kings, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege, in addition to Activisions’ FPS titles Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6 and Name of Responsibility Warzone. Particularly, Activision’s Name of Responsibility League signed a multi-year partnership take care of the Esports World Cup Basis.

The latter, alongside the event itself, has been criticised by members of the esports group as a consequence of its backing from Saudi Authorities’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Funding Fund (PIF).

ESL FACEIT Group, which is the corporate that helps the creation of the event, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Savvy Video games Group, a sport funding firm owned by the PIF. Different corporations within the funding portfolio embrace Hero Esports (previously referred to as VSPO), the most important esports event organiser in Asia.