Counter-Strike 2 accounted for nearly two-thirds of all esports prediction market volume at Kalshi this week, with League of Legends a clear second, and Valorant and Dota 2 both posting strong numbers.
The released data is from 1-7 June 2026. Kalshi sports markets generated a total of $36.18 million in total contract volume, for 408 matches. Six titles included in the Kalshi platform: Counter-Strike: 2, League of Legends, Valorant, Call of Duty and Overwatch.
A Week In Kalshi: Volume About Esport
CS2 comfortably led with $23.7 million and 65.6% of all esports volume across 236 games. Valve’s popular FPS title is currently touring the IEM Cologne Major, so it’s no surprise that it’s sitting at the top of the charts.
I would expect it to be a very large percentage for the finals on June 21. Counter-Strike has always been open to gambling sponsors and with skin betting there is a more ingrained gambling culture than others. So no small amount of surprise leads to interest.
League of Legends came in second with $8.7 million from 116 games, pulling in volume from the LCK (Korea), LPL (China), LEC (Europe), and regional circuits. Valorant made $2.1 million from 13 matches, and Dota 2 made $1.5 million from 11. Call of Duty and Overwatch were small but solid additions to the platform.
Big One Week Market
BIG vs. NRG in CS2 was the top-grossing individual game of the week with $1.44 million in combined volume. GamerLegion vs. B8 Esports ($1.05M) and M80 vs. B8 Esports ($1.05M) rounded out the top three, both in CS2. The first League of Legends market to appear in the top ten was Karmine Corp vs. G2 Esports for $1.02M.
What is Data?
Kalshi is a prediction market platform where users trade contracts on the outcome of real-world events, including esports matches. Instead of traditional betting odds, Kalshi works like a market: you buy a “Yes” contract if you think the team will win, or a “No” contract if you think it won’t. Prices move based on supply and demand, and contracts are always $1 if they’re good, $0 if they’re not.
Therefore, the volume traded metric does not show much about the “interest” of the market. It shows us how much aggregate money has gone into a particular game. For example, a game with a value of $1 million simply means that 1 million contracts changed hands in that outcome. Therefore, it is not a measure of how much you win or lose. One can buy a position for $0.01 and therefore, has not actually bet $1.
What Does Volume Tell Us – And What Can It Say?
High volume in a game means that many traders were interested in that result, it can indicate a high-quality game, two equal teams, or that the game fell at a popular time. It happens not it tells us who the market thought was going to win, and it doesn’t tell us how much individual traders made or lost.
Volume is the best estimate we have from this measurement data which is like drawing a lot of attention to Kalshi every week.
However, there may be a number of other factors that explain volume in esports. Esports is known for its data lag, and there have been public examples of people writing bots to exploit data lag to take positions that the average fan, and thus the market, did not react to. Future pieces will look to explore this situation.
