Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris with $75M prize pool

The Esports World Cup 2026 will be held in Paris from July 6 to Aug. 23, offering a $75 million prize pool across 25 tournaments and 24 game titles. Organizers expect more than 2,000 players from over 200 clubs representing more than 100 countries to compete.

Events will take place at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. An opening ceremony is scheduled for July 8 at La Seine Musicale with performances by DJ Snake, Aya Nakamura and Theodora. Organizers will run fan fest activities, creator content and on-site experiences alongside the competitions.

The total prize pool for 2026 is $75 million. About $30 million of that is allocated to the Club Championship, with the overall winning organization projected to receive $7 million. Organizers estimate $39 million to $45 million will be distributed among individual tournaments, with separate awards for MVPs and qualifiers. Honor of Kings and the PUBG Mobile World Cup each carry purses near $3 million. Valorant is set at $2 million, while Teamfight Tactics, Trackmania and the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Women’s Invitational are near $500,000.

The Club Championship awards points for top-eight finishes to determine the overall organization ranking. First place in an event is typically worth 1,000 points and second place 750, with lower placements scaling down. Only a club’s best placement per title counts. A club must record at least one tournament victory and multiple top-eight results to contend for the overall title. The format spans shooters, MOBAs, battle royales, fighting games, sports simulations and racing.

Team Falcons enters the Paris event as the defending Club Champion after winning the title in 2024 and 2025. The organization scored 5,665 points and the $7 million top prize in 2024, then defended with 5,200 points in 2025. For 2026, Team Falcons has qualified for roughly 20 of the 25 events. Other clubs positioned to challenge include Team Liquid, Team Vitality, Gen.G, Virtus.pro and AG.AL.

Valorant, Apex Legends, Dota 2 and Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves open the schedule. League of Legends, Free Fire and the Mobile Legends Women’s Invitational follow in the second week. Later stages include PUBG: Battlegrounds, EA Sports FC 26, Teamfight Tactics, the MLBB Mid-Season Cup, Honor of Kings, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the PUBG Mobile World Cup, Rainbow Six Siege, Tekken 8, Street Fighter 6, Overwatch Champions Series, Warzone Resurgence, Rocket League, chess, Counter-Strike 2, CrossFire, Fortnite and Trackmania.

New entries for 2026 are Trackmania, Fortnite in Reload mode under a multi-year partnership with Epic, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and EA Sports FC 26. Mobile titles such as Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends carry large regional followings and significant prize pools in Asian markets. Some community members noted that StarCraft II and Rennsport are not on the schedule.

Organizers described the Paris festival as both a competitive event and a commercial test of the multi-title club model. Large prize pools and cross-game incentives require clubs to field wider rosters and expand coaching, analytics and international operations. Organizers reported audience totals for 2025 near 750 million viewers and about 350 million hours watched, figures that the Paris edition will reference.

The Club Championship standings will develop across the seven-week festival. Early wins will affect the leaderboard, but multiple top-eight finishes across titles will determine which organization secures the overall title at the conclusion of the event in late August.