The Esports World Cup claims record ticket sales after moving to Paris… Is this the end?
I Esports World Cup it’s back, and this time it has a new look. Due to the tension in the country, the entire tournament for several weeks was moved from Saudi Arabia at the last minute and sent thousands of kilometers to Paris, France.
According to the organizers of the tournament, this chaotic city exchange was a great success. At the opening press conference, the CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation proudly announced that they had sold more than 100,000 tickets.
At the opening ceremony, Ralf Reichert announced: “More than 100,000 tickets have been sold in the last few weeks – a record for an event like this.” The competition has not changed.
“Riyadh builds it. Paris takes it to the world.”
Various publications quickly ran with the headline, suggesting that this could be the greatest sports show in human history. Another amazing announcement that sounds amazing on paper, but if you look at the history of the event, it’s worth taking these big numbers with a very healthy grain of salt.
Let’s take a look at the stats on the biggest esports event in history
To sell 100,000 tickets in just a few weeks is a bold move. In context, the event lasts seven weeks, includes 24 games, and boasts a prize pool approaching $100 million. But just because the CEO says a number doesn’t mean 100,000 organic, hype-driven fans are actually filling stadium seats right now.
The Paris Expo Porte de Versailles has a lot of space for conferences and anything, it can hold more than 100,000 people, but its main theater seats 5,200 people. So… Did all the people who bought tickets just plan to wander around instead of watching the tournament?
Presumably, if the ticket sales are real, they only attend the sports competitions they follow. But do they count the unique people who bought a ticket, or do they count each one-day pass across a seven-week calendar? If one person buys a pass to watch three different games over the weekend, does that count as three tickets sold?
When I went to check the tickets, basically you can buy a separate ticket for every day of the tournament, which means I could buy up to nine tickets for Week 2 of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and still buy tickets for a bunch of games in another title that happened that week. Does that count as 18+ ticket purchases towards the 100,000 total?
It’s also amazing that 100,000 tickets were sold in a place where the main theater seats only 5,200 guests and the largest hall holds 64,000 guests, yet I can still buy tickets to concerts now. I also managed to buy tickets to the Grand Finals of the VALORANT tournament, which is about to start.
You would think that if more fans were present, a popular, upcoming event like the VALORANT Grand Finals would be sold out.
The Dota 2 Championship Weekend was also very accessible with the exception of Final Day. However, you can purchase a Premium Tournament Pass for week 2, which will allow you to enter anyway. Another major title, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, was also open for ticket purchases, including the Championship Weekend Final Day. Surprisingly, Call of Duty: Warzone has the last day of Championship Weekend sold out.
This, of course, proves nothing. I am not trying to say that no one is buying tickets because nothing has been sold and they are still allowing multiple ticket purchases. I’m just saying, there’s room left. What seems shocking about the event is suspected to be a record-breaking event.
Existing fans can be paid to attend
The suspicions surrounding these crowd sizes are not just psychological animosity; it is based on written history. Investigative journalist Richard Lewis blew the whistle on how the Esports World Cup will handle its crowds in Riyadh back in 2025. An internal leak revealed a program called the Superfan campaign.
The organizers are reportedly very concerned about the crowds being seen on camera. To fix the optics, they created a financial reward scheme for participating esports clubs. If the organization independently locates, checks, and flies out at least twenty big fans to Riyadh, the tournament foundation can pay the entire bill for flights, hotels, and buses. Organizations received cash bonuses for hitting these milestones, and the tournament drew a group of passionate fans to fill the front rows, so the event looked great on broadcast.
Why were they paying people to go there? Because there was no one.
A source told Lewis that the Superfan campaign was “totally about expanding and dividing the crowd for optics” as the images did not match the reported ticket sales. That year, they said they sold more than 60,000 tickets and boasted 289,000 visitors, but photos recently showed “four hundred Saudi men in traditional dress” – and nowhere near the tens of thousands of fans reported on local news channels.
It’s not really shocking that fans are paid to attend. Clubs are paid just to participate through the Club Partner Program, which is why they rush to sign chess players, FGC experts, and other competitors. There are also tons of incentives beyond prize money, including the Club Championship with $30 million split among the top 24 teams based on leaderboard standings at the end of the event.
Also, I’m not saying with absolute certainty that people attending the Esports World Cup are being paid to be there. At least not all of them. But it’s still pretty shocking to believe that over 100,000 people will attend an event that seems to go against what many esports fans stand for. again it doesn’t even count the actual season of many of the titles out there. It’s actually a glorified show with paid participants.
Also, there may be esports fans in it. And maybe some “regulars” don’t feel like passing by since they live near Paris. But the forced hype and overproduction of the Esports World Cup actually doesn’t seem to resonate with the majority of esports fans. I mean… Check out the responses to this classy, random, yearning-to-be-normal inauguration tweet:
There is no you hear this. I refuse to believe that many esports fans traveled to Paris to watch this live. By their choice. It goes against the whole pivot of the esports industry as of late, going back to the real vibes of the players, after realizing that trying to appeal to a mainstream audience was wasting tons of money and losing fans.
Most of the positive responses to the Esports World Cup tweets seem to come from the teams that paid to be there. It’s hard to get fans’ responses to almost any of their social media updates. Like… Really FURIA?
Changing cities and changing stories
As the tournament moves to Paris, organizers discuss the issue of global expansion. They created a milestone of 100,000 tickets as proof that European fans want this product.
News articles and interviews in the mainstream media made the move seem like a monumental moment in the history of the sport, which is obviously googly-eyed in the prize pool. But it was hard to find similar sentiments in the esports community on social media. I personally did not see esports fans deciding to attend EWC because of the new venue, but I probably missed a lot of fans who changed their minds.
As the competition begins, the real test will be how the streams look when the cameras are out on the main stage. The Esports World Cup certainly has the money to build great stages, but buying real stadium hype is a whole different ball game.
I wasn’t able to attend the Esports World Cup, but we have someone right now, and the feedback I’ve been getting is hilarious. However, they told me that they will go in without preconceived notions and really want to see if the Esports World Cup lives up to the hype and is full of real esports fans as announced by the CEO.
We’ll see in the next seven weeks if Paris has really evolved, or if the organizers are getting better at advertising the quiet room.
