2026 Esports World Cup Guide

Esports World Cup 2026 will take place from July 6 to August 23 in Paris, France. Overall, this will be the third Esports World Cup, with this year’s prize pool reaching $75,000,000.

A total of 24 games will be played, of which only Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has separate men’s and women’s events, meaning there will be 25 events in total. Three games have a $3,000,000 prize pool, while the organization that finishes first at Esports World Cup will receive $7,000,000.

Here, we take a full look at the Esports World Cup format, teams and prize pool.

Esports World Cup is an annual tournament that has been held since 2024 and brings together the strongest esports organizations in the world. For the first two years, the tournament was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but in 2026 it was moved to Paris, France due to security concerns in the region.

EWC organizations compete not only in individual games, but also in the overall standings. It can be said that this partly resembles the Olympic Games, where the overall number of medals won is counted.

During EWC, the Club Championship is held, where 24 organizations receive cash prizes. The top three places receive:

1. $7,000,000
2. $5,000,000
3. $4,000,000

At Esports World Cup 2026, 24 games will be played and there will be 25 events in total. The only game with two events is Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, where men and women will compete separately.

Compared to EWC 2025, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, StarCraft II, Rennsport and EA Sports FC 25 will no longer be among the games. These games are replaced by Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, EA Sports FC 26, Fortnite and Trackmania.

The number of participants has increased in as many as 12 games. Counter-Strike 2 and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves have added 16 additional teams and 16 additional players. Call of Duty: Warzone has added 11 additional teams, while Dota 2 and PUBG Mobile have each added 8 teams.

Street Fighter 6 is the only game where the number of participants has decreased. Last year, 48 players competed here, while this year 32 will compete.

All Esports World Cup 2026 games: VALORANT, Dota 2, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Apex Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Free Fire, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, PUBG, EA Sports FC 26, Street Fighter 6, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty: Warzone, Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, Tekken 8, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Rainbow Six Siege, Chess, Rocket League, Counter-Strike 2, CrossFire, Fortnite, Trackmania.

More than 200 esports organizations will compete in the tournament. Most of them will play 1-2 games and will not be contenders in the main Club Championship race. However, EWC is also a great chance for smaller teams to compete in the games they specialize in and win a solid prize pool.

The well-known organization Astralis will compete in only one event out of 25. The team will play Counter-Strike 2. FaZe will compete in two games: CS2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. Alpha7 Esports, Cloud9, EDward Gaming, Fluxo W7M, FlyQuest and many others will compete in only one game.

Among the participating organizations, Team Falcons stands out, as it will compete in 19 of 25 events. It also has the strongest chance of winning the Club Championship.

Team Vitality and AG.AL International will compete in 15 events. Virtus.pro and Aurora Gaming will compete in 11 events.

Esports World Cup 2026 brings together 24 games, but there will be 25 separate events in total. Each game has its own separate tournament, with a wide range of formats being used.

Although most game tournaments will simply be called Esports World Cup 2026, some games will be played under different names, for example:

• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang – MLBB Women’s International 2026
• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang – MLBB Mid Season Cup 2026
• EA Sports FC 26 – FC Pro 26 World Championship
• Honor of Kings – KoH World Cup 2026
• PUBG Mobile – PUBG Mobile World Cup 2026
• Fortnite – Reload Elite Series Championship
• Overwatch 2 – OWCS Midseason Championship 2026

Qualification for EWC depends on the game. Teams qualify for each game through various qualifiers, with separate rules applied. Some games had open qualifiers, where any teams could register.

EWC also has the Club Partner Program. This is a special program designed to support organizations financially, creating more opportunities for players.

In 2026, 40 esports organizations were included in the program. Importantly, joining the Club Partner Program does not provide a place in the tournament, and teams still had to qualify.

In total, the Esports World Cup 2026 prize pool is more than $75,000,000, of which $30,000,000 is allocated to the Club Championship. The largest prize pools of $3,000,000 are in three games:

• Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
• Honor of Kings
• PUBG Mobile

Nine games have a prize pool of $2,000,000:

• VALORANT
• Dota 2
• Apex Legends
• League of Legends
• PUBG
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Counter-Strike 2
• CrossFire

The Club Championship reward will be given to 24 organizations. Teams finishing in the first 7 places will receive $1,150,000 or more. First place will receive $7,000,000.

Esports World Cup 2026 is a tournament that brings together 24 games and will last 7 weeks. However, it is important to note that these will simply be separate esports game tournaments, with most of them taking place at the same time.

Online bookmakers do not have many Esports World Cup betting markets overall. The main options are a few selections on who will win the Club Championship, and which organization will finish higher (H2H). When betting on EWC 2026, the focus should be on each game separately.

When placing EWC bets, it is important to note that EWC has a different level of prestige in each game. Esports World Cup is taking place for the third year in a row, but in some games it is already the main tournament of the year or the tournament with the largest prize pool.

Motivation is different in every game. For example, in Counter-Strike 2, EWC 2026 is one of many tournaments. Therefore, although it will be an S-Tier tournament, it is not as significant as other CS2 tournaments that have been held for many years.

EWC will also take place after the players break, so most teams will not yet be in their best form.

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