2026 Esports World Cup

Last updated

2026 Esports World Cup
Esports World Cup logo.svg
Tournament information
Sport Esports
Location Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Dates6 July–23 August
AdministratorEsports World Cup Foundation
Tournaments supervised by ESL
Number of
events
25 in 24 esports
Purse$75 million
Website esportsworldcup.com
←  2025
2027  →

The 2026 Esports World Cup (EWC) will be the third edition of the Esports World Cup, an annual international esports tournament series run by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), a nonprofit organization funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. It will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 6 July to 23 August 2025 and is set to feature 25 events in 24 esports.

Contents

This year will feature one new game, the racing game Trackmania (2020), while Fortnite will make its return to the EWC, this time using the Reload game mode. On the other hand, Rennsport and StarCraft II will not be present this year and so will Naraka: Bladepoint , which was held as a non-championship event last year. Due to their series' annual game releases, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and EA Sports FC 26 will replace Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and EA Sports FC 25 , respectively, in the game lineup.

Similar to the first two EWCs, each game will host at least one event, some are standalone events while others are part of a larger competitive circuit. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang remains as the only game to host two events. A total of $75 million will distributed across all events, an increase from $71.5 million in 2025.

Background

On 8 October 2025, the EWC announced the first 20 games that will be included as part of the lineup. Out of the 25 games which hosted events in 2025, Naraka: Bladepoint (which hosted a non-championship event), Rennsport , Rocket League , StarCraft II , and Tekken 8 weren't listed among the initial returning games. [1] On 11 October, Tekken 8 was confirmed to return as the 21st game in the lineup. [2]

On 17 December, the EWC announced that it entered a three-year partnership with Epic Games that would see two of its games, Fortnite and Rocket League, host EWC events through 2028. The latter was featured in both of the previous EWCs while the former returns to the lineup after it was featured in 2024. In the case of Fortnite, rather than the game being played in custom maps made using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, the event will instead be played in Fortnite Reload, a variation of the game's Battle Royale mode, as part of the Fortnite Reload Elite Series. [3] Trackmania (2020) was announced as the 24th and final game on 19 January 2026, which will also mark the game's EWC debut. [4]

The exclusion of StarCraft II from the lineup meant that the 2026 EWC will not feature any real-time strategy games, which caused criticism from creators and fans from the StarCraft II and RTS communities. [5] [6] Two other games were also dropped, being Naraka: Bladepoint and Rennsport.

Calendar

Most of the calendar was unveiled on 20 January 2026, with the exceptions of Fortnite Reload , PUBG Mobile , and Rocket League . Like last year, the events will be held across a seven-week calendar.

●Competitions days
July/August 2026JulyAugust
Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7
6789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223
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 Reload
Free Fire ● ● ● ●
Honor of Kings ● ● ● ●
League of Legends ● ● ● ● ●
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Men's ● ● ● ●
Women's ● ● ● ● ●
Overwatch 2 ● ● ● ● ●
PUBG: Battlegrounds ● ● ● ● ● ●
PUBG Mobile
Rainbow Six Siege ● ● ● ●
Rocket League
Street Fighter 6 ● ● ● ●
Teamfight Tactics ● ● ● ● ●
Tekken 8 ● ● ● ●
Trackmania ● ● ● ● ●
Valorant ● ● ● ●

Prize pool

The 2026 Esports World Cup will feature a prize pool of US$75 million, which surpasses the $71.5 million from last year. $30 million is allocated for the top 24 teams in this year's Club Championship, an increase from $27 million last year, though the champion club will still receive $7 million. $39 million will be distributed across the 25 events for their respective prize pools. [7]

References

  1. ↑ Harbinson, Darragh (8 October 2025). "EWC announce first 20 titles for EWC 2026; four more yet to be announced". Esports News UK. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  2. ↑ @EWC_EN (10 October 2025). "TEKKEN 8 is confirmed for EWC 2026! See you in Riyadh, fighters 👊" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ↑ Hale, Jacob (17 December 2025). "Fortnite and Rocket League Announced for Esports World Cup 2026". esports.net. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  4. ↑ Banik, Sourav (19 January 2026). "Trackmania completes EWC 2026's massive 24-title lineup". Dot Esports. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  5. ↑ Nicholson, Jonno (20 January 2026). ""A huge blow": StarCraft II community reacts to Esports World Cup omission". Esports Insider. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  6. ↑ Taylor-Hill, Grant (20 January 2026). "StarCraft II Won't Be At EWC 2026, Nor Will Any Other RTS Title". Insider Gaming. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
  7. ↑ Hale, Jacob (20 January 2026). "Esports World Cup 2026 Prize Pool Finally Revealed & It's Bigger Than Ever". esports.net. Retrieved 23 January 2026.
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