Year on year, the world of esports continues to grow with immense popularity. In 2019, the sport exceeded the $1 billion revenue mark, with a year-on-year growth of 26.7%. It’s not just new games that spike the interest though, as old-school esports games such as DOTA 2, League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, continue to remain incredibly popular to this day.
The love for games such as Overwatch, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, PUBG, Apex Legends and Fortnite have also increased the demand for esports tournaments and matches, leading the industry to grow from strength to strength.
The release of Call of Duty: Warzone, the free-to-play Battle Royale from developer Infinity Ward, can’t be overlooked here. Despite being less than one month old, it’s already one of the most-streamed games on Twitch, and it’s now primed and ready to take on the challenges of competitive esports.
Following its launch, over six million players downloaded Warzone within the first 24 hours. Within a mere four days it had reached 15 million downloads and, on March 20th, Activision announced that over 30 million players have now downloaded the free-to-play game. The numbers make it one of the most popular F2P games on the market, hot on the heels of the likes of PUBG, Fortnite and Apex Legends.
Already the game has seen a number of patches and additional content coming into play, and it seems that Infinity Ward is definitely in it for the long haul when it comes to keeping the game fresh and fun.
Ensuring everyone can play, Call of Duty: Warzone is also cross-platform, with PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players all being able to compete against each other.
It’s crazy to think that Call of Duty: Warzone has only been around since March 10th and, despite it being early days, it’s clear that the game’s influence in competitive gaming will only continue to grow massively year-on-year.
Just how far Warzone can go in the world of esports remains to be seen, but with the first official Call of Duty: Warzone tournament taking place this week, we’re sure to find out!
Hosted by Twitch Rivals in partnership with Activision, the must-watch tournament will see some of the world’s best and most popular streamers across Europe, North America and Taiwan competing for big money prizes!
The likes of DrLupo, Summit1g, DrDisrespect and Syndicate will be logging in to duke it out across both solos and trios, and it promises to be one of the biggest events of the year.
Watch Twitch Rivals: Warzone Streamer Showdown (Europe) from TwitchRivals on www.twitch.tvThe first ever Call of Duty: Warzone tournament continues tonight (March 26) with its second day of streaming starting at 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET/9:00am PDT.
Part of a partnership between Twitch Rivals and GameByte.
Featured Image Credit: Activision