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2025 will be a breakthrough year for esports. Why did he come to this conclusion? The Esports World Cup (EWC), held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, played a major role.
Looking back at 2025, I feel that the esports scene has made great strides. The Esports World Cup (EWC) held in Saudi Arabia had a particularly big impact. The second event in 2025 has attracted increasing attention in Japan, perhaps due to the fact that some titles will be distributed in Japanese.
Japan's esports events have been significantly more active outside of the capital region. The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) held in Hokkaido is a prime example of this. The connection between the entertainment industry and esports is also notable, and the entertainment market is expanding.
Will the EWC become a target for the world's esports teams?
The EWC is an international eSports tournament featuring tournaments in 24 titles and 25 events. Each event offers substantial prize money. At the same time, it also serves as a "Club Championship," awarding points to the top teams in each event. The world's best team is selected based on the overall score.
▼Related articleEWC observation notesThe top 24 teams in the Club Championship will receive a total of $27 million (approximately 4 billion yen at an exchange rate of 150 yen to the dollar), with the winning team receiving $7 million (approximately 1 billion yen).
Until now, the majority of income for e-sports teams has come from sponsorships. Prize money from tournaments has often been paid directly to the players, leaving only a small amount for the team. It is difficult to count this as the team's main income.
However, in the Club Championship, prize money goes to teams, not players. Even the 10th-place team receives $600,000 (approximately 90 million yen). It's not easy for a company to generate sales of 100 million yen. Inevitably, the EWC prize money will attract a lot of interest from esports teams. Global esports teams may even change their management policies, such as adding more divisions to earn more points or poaching top players.
In particular, in the Club Championship, since the ranking points are basically the same for all titles, playing a single fighting game can be efficient for a team, especially if you are a multiplayer who is highly skilled in multiple fighting games.
In fact, at the 2025 EWC, DetonatioN FocusMe (DFM) was the only Japanese team to earn $300,000 (approximately 45 million yen), but this was thanks to the efforts of one player, GO1. By winning Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (CotW) and coming in fifth in Street Fighter 6 (SF6), the team earned 1,200 points in the Club Championship, placing them tied for 14th overall.
To qualify for the Club Championship, teams must either become a partner team of one of the 40 teams recognised by the EWC or finish in the top eight or better in two or more EWC titles.
Considering that DMF, which is not a partner team, would not have been eligible to win the Club Championship prize money by winning "Fatal Fury: Counterattack of World" alone, GO1's contribution to the team, who met the conditions alone, is immeasurable. He personally won $300,000 (approximately 45 million yen) in "Fatal Fury: Counterattack of World" and $32,500 (approximately 5 million yen) in "Street Fighter 6."
In the future, there is a possibility that overseas teams will make more offers to Japanese fighting game players in order to compete for the EWC prize money. However, in order to recruit top players, teams need financial resources. In North America in recent years, many well-known teams, such as "TSM," "NRG," and "Immortals," have disbanded or withdrawn from certain titles. This is because investors and sponsors are beginning to hold off on investment for various reasons, including the fact that the growth of the esports industry has not been as expected and that returns on investment are not as expected.
The impact in Japan has not yet been as great as in North America, but there is a possibility that it will spread in the future. However, in Japan, offline tournaments can attract spectators, so there is still room for fans to provide direct support. High levels of fan engagement will likely mean more investment value for sponsors than in North America. Therefore, I believe that the situation will not be the same as in North America for some time.
The EWC is also planning to host the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), a national team competition, from 2026. The Olympic Esports Games (OEG), a national team competition organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that was scheduled to be held in 2027, was scrapped when the IOC terminated its contract with Saudi Arabia, but both events overlapped in content as national team competitions. In that sense, it could be said that even if the OEG were to be canceled, it would not be a major blow.
Another event is the 20th Asian Games, which will be held in Nagoya in 2026, which will also include esports as an official sport. Although esports will be excluded from the event after this one, the establishment of a new tournament is being considered. We look forward to seeing these developments.
▼Related articles: Olympic Esports Games, IOC terminates contract with Saudi Arabia; Saudi Arabian national team competition "Esports Nations Cup" first tournament information releasedThe success of ALGS highlights the growth of local esports
While regional esports activities have been seen here and there, 2025 saw a surge in activity. The Apex Legends Global Series Year 4 Championship, a world tournament for the shooter game Apex Legends, held at the Daiwa House Premist Dome (Sapporo Dome) in Sapporo, Hokkaido, was a particularly successful event. A total of 34,000 people attended the event over its five-day run.
While Japan has hosted several esports world championships in the past, the venues have mostly been in metropolitan areas such as Chiba and Tokyo. There have been almost no events held in regional areas. While esports is popular among young people and in urban areas, it was previously thought that "it would not be possible to attract that many people in regional areas." Therefore, the success of the ALGS can be seen as a stepping stone to attracting tournaments to regional areas.
In addition, the three Hokuriku prefectures of Toyama, Ishikawa, and Fukui have launched "ZIMOGee," a project to connect the region with esports. Based on the theme of "local" and "games," this community-based esports project will hold a pre-tournament event on November 16, 2025, which can be enjoyed by people of all ages, from children to seniors.
Hakui City, Ishikawa Prefecture, announced the establishment of an official local government esports club, "LAKUNA HAKUI Esports Club," in December 2025. The club will focus on revitalizing the region and nurturing the next generation. In Gunma Prefecture, local industry company Itoi Holdings (Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture) and esports team "ZETA DIVISION" have signed a partnership agreement. The aim is to utilize esports to promote regional development within Gunma Prefecture and expand the esports community.
▼Related articleZETA and Itoi HD partner to promote eSports in Gunma PrefectureRegionally based esports teams such as "Hiroshima Team iXA" (Hiroshima), "QT DIG∞" (Fukuoka), "FUKUSHIMA IBUSHIGIN" (Fukushima), and "Saishunkan Sol Kumamoto" (Kumamoto) are also notable for their success. Each team is strengthening ties with their local communities.
In esports, where you can compete online, there is little reason to set up team bases in the Tokyo metropolitan area. While tournaments have tended to be avoided due to the lack of people to attract, it looks like this trend will continue to grow in the future. Given these factors, I believe that esports will become even more active in regional areas from 2026 onwards.
The entertainment industry and the e-sports industry have become closer
Another interesting development is the growing proximity between esports and the entertainment industry. In August 2025, Yamada Ryosuke, a member of the male idol group Hey! Say! JUMP, joined the professional esports team Crazy Raccoon, which caused quite a stir. Furthermore, professional figure skater Uno Shoma participated in a Zeta Division tournament and received coaching from a Street Fighter 6 pro, creating a lively exchange between the two.
There are many esports teams that have influencers on their team, and from the perspective of talent management, it can be said that they also have an aspect of being a "talent agency."
Yoshimoto Kogyo already operates the e-sports team "Yoshimoto Gaming," and in August 2025, a women's e-sports team called "amshy" was formed, consisting of seven current members of SKE48.
There seems to be a strong affinity between e-sports and entertainment. In the future, we may see cases where an e-sports team manages a celebrity's e-sports-related business.
What issues need to be resolved in 2026?
The year 2025 can be said to be a year in which esports has steadily expanded in terms of market size and recognition. However, this expansion has also brought with it problems.
It has been observed that organizers who have become accustomed to relatively small-scale tournaments are no longer able to utilize the same know-how when the scale of tournaments increases. In addition, new challenges have arisen, such as the increasing costs of running esports teams, widening disparities in team fundraising capabilities, and excessively high salaries due to players being poached.
Furthermore, with the increase in new entrants with inexperience, problems that had previously been resolved have resurfaced, with some tournaments experiencing difficulties with video streaming and progress.
However, these kinds of things can happen in any industry. This is also evidence that esports is becoming established as an industry. As the challenges it faces are overcome one by one, we hope to see further expansion in 2026.
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