The Esports World Cup Foundation has announced that the Esports World Cup 2026 will feature a total prize pool of $75 million, alongside the full game lineup and event schedule. The tournament will return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 6 to August 23, 2026, and is expected to bring together more than 2,000 players and 200 clubs from over 100 countries.
Why It Matters: The size of the prize pool and the scale of the event show how the Esports World Cup is positioning itself as a long-term, multi-title competition that rewards not just individual players, but also clubs that perform well across several games in one season.
According to the organizers, the 2026 edition will feature 25 tournaments across 24 different games, spread over seven weeks and multiple venues. The Club Championship, which ranks teams based on their combined performance across different titles, will have a $30 million prize pool. The winning club will take home $7 million, while the rest will be shared among the top 24 clubs. This is an increase compared to last year’s allocation.
The combined prize pools for the individual game championships will go beyond $39 million. The remaining amount will be distributed through club and player awards, including MVP awards per tournament and the Jafonso Award, which is given to players or clubs that win a championship after qualifying through a last chance qualifier.
The game lineup for EWC 2026 includes Apex Legends, Call of Duty Black Ops 7, Call of Duty Warzone, Chess, Counter-Strike 2, Crossfire, Dota 2, EA Sports FC 26, Fatal Fury City of the Wolves, Fortnite, Free Fire, Honor of Kings, League of Legends, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, Overwatch 2, PUBG Battlegrounds, PUBG Mobile, Rocket League, Street Fighter 6, Teamfight Tactics, Tekken 8, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X, Trackmania, and Valorant. Fortnite and Trackmania are new additions to the event.
The Esports World Cup Foundation said it will continue to run its support programs, including the Club Partner Program, which will again include 40 esports organizations, and the Road to EWC qualification system, which works with publishers and tournament organizers to provide pathways into the main event.
Tickets for the Esports World Cup 2026 will go on sale starting January 22, 2026, through the event’s official ticketing partners. The organizers also shared figures from last year’s event, which reportedly reached 750 million viewers worldwide and drew more than 3 million visitors in Riyadh over the seven-week period.
With a larger prize pool, more games, and a longer schedule, will the Esports World Cup 2026 set a new standard for how global esports events are run
