The term e-sports, or electronic sports, defines computer game competitions that can be played individually or in a team by amateurs and professionals. Russia followed China and the U.S. as the
. In 2021, Russian players won a total of nearly 22 million U.S. dollars in prize money at tournaments. Furthermore,
among territories worldwide. The
in the country was estimated at 35.1 million U.S. dollars in 2022 and was expected to continue growing in the following years.
Leading e-sports games and players in Russia
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Dota 2 were the
e-sports disciplines with the highest number of Russian e-sporters competing in professional tournaments. As of August 2022, four teams specializing in Dota 2 were among the 10
highest earning professional e-sports teams in Russia, with Team Spirit and Virtus.pro occupying the two leading positions. Moreover, Dota 2 players Yaroslav Naydenov (Miposhka), Magomed Halilov (CoLLapse), Alexander Khertek (TorontoTokyo), and Mikhail Agatov (Misha) also made it to the ranking of the 10
leading e-sports players in the country in 2022. The ranking’s leader, Danila Yakovenko (Malibuca), competed in Fortnite tournaments.
Video game streaming in Russia
The
audience of e-sports competitions in Russia was forecast to decline by 2.9 million users in 2022 as a result of restrictions on Russian teams and players due to the invasion of Ukraine. However, it was expected to recover in the following two years and surpass 14 million in 2025.
YouTube Gaming was the most popular game streaming site in Russia, used by nearly half of consumers in 2022. It was followed by Twitch, Vk.Live, and Yandex.Efir.
Dota 2 led the ranking of the most streamed games on Twitch in the Russian language, at nearly 337 thousand hours in the past month as of February 2023.
Impact of the war in Ukraine on e-sports in Russia
In response to the
war in Ukraine, the European Esports Federation (EEF) and BLAST Premier banned Russian professional e-sports teams from competing in their tournaments. Further restrictions were placed by FIFA, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege. The Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned the e-sports organizations affiliated with the government, while the League of Legends (LoL) Continental League in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was cancelled. Twitch stopped paying Russia-based streamers, leading some users to switch to
Trovo, the second most popular game streaming platform in Russia in July 2022.
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