The second quarter of 2020 marked a shift in esports since the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a disruptive force in all markets across the world.
With many in-person events being canceled, esports tournament organizers had to get creative with online events. But despite many changes to the status quo across multiple games, League of Legends and CS:GO were still the cream of the crop, according to The Esports Observer.
TEO released its “Impact Index” for Q2 2020 earlier today, listing League and CS:GO as the top two most impactful PC Games once again.
TEO said League’s player base and hours watched were a couple of the most significant contributing factors in putting it at the top this quarter, according to research done in conjunction with its analytics partner Newzoo. CS:GO, on the other hand, had the most tournaments hosted for it during the quarter and paid out the most prize money as well.
With the COVID-19 pandemic keeping people inside amid social distancing guidelines, metrics like “hours watched” and “esports hours watched,” which account for 15 percent and 20 percent of the index respectively, were notably important.
Meanwhile, Riot’s new tactical shooter VALORANT debuted on TEO’s list in third place after its closed beta launched in April, the first month of the quarter. While the game hasn’t had much time to develop from an esports perspective, the record-breaking viewership numbers that the game had early on were enough to put it just below two games that are consistently in TEO’s top tier.
