Games That Would Make for Great eSports Competitions

Gaming went from an underground hobby to a mainstream form of entertainment for the everyday person to, more recently, a genuine career path, whether in esports or online streaming. With the option to play at slot sites and watch a professional gamer play a newly released game, the gaming experience has become more immersive.

Photo by Alex Haney on Unsplash

Excelling at a game and reaching the top of the ranks is no longer just for bragging rights or validation—it means you’ve got a chance to make it in the big leagues and potentially win massive prize pools. But aside from popular esports games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Call of Duty, will other games offer those high-stakes tournaments anytime soon? You might’ve once played a game and thought, “I could totally go pro.” And the reality is that a vast number of games—independent and mainstream—offer a gaming experience that could be perfectly suited for esports.

Let’s take a look at a few examples below.

Overcooked! 2

Overcooked is all about teamwork and timing, a simulation game set in unconventional kitchen scenarios filled with cooking equipment and ingredients. The goal is to prepare meals as a unit by cooking, chopping, and so on at various stations to prepare meals in time for customers. With humorous obstacles and hazards like moving platforms, portals, and random animals, things are kept interesting and challenging, and players are kept on their toes.

Why it could work for esports:

With an intensely competitive multiplayer option, pitting chefs against each other to score the most points in a certain timeframe, there’s great potential for Overcooked! 2 to become a mainstay in the esports scene. All the chaos, the time pressure, and the high stakes make it suitable for a variety of tournament formats. The nature of the game is quite casual and family-friendly, which differs from the current top games that focus on combat. This fresh new approach could attract a unique audience, potentially broadening the appeal of esports.

Pac-Man

Pac-Man came out around the same time as Tetris did in the early 1980. But only one of them became an esports favorite, and it wasn’t the one featuring the round yellow character. Tetris seemed to have found a place in esports because of its naturally competitive nature. It had the makings of an evergreen title that could appeal to anyone, where gamers could hone hallmarks of competitive games like spatial reasoning and quick reflexes. Meanwhile, Pac-Man’s gameplay was much tamer and more casual, where the objective was simply to eat all the dots in the maze and avoid getting caught by the ghosts.

Why it could work for esports:

The beauty of this classic arcade game is that, like Tetris, doing well means racking up a high score. This endless quality makes it a brilliant candidate for esports, as people are excited to see how long players will last. As the game is so accessible and infinitely replayable, it has a vast appeal yet a very high skill ceiling that will eventually separate the pros from the amateurs. Pac-Man tournaments can operate off classic leaderboards based on the highest score or the fastest time.

Pokémon TCG Pocket

In October 2024, Pokémon launched Pokémon TCG Pocket, a digital version of pack-opening that can be done right from your smartphone. Players can open two booster packs daily for free and marvel at the cards’ incredible artwork and immersive illustrations. While collecting is a huge part of the app, the game is based on the real-world trading card game that was introduced in 1996. Players can use their available cards to build powerful teams and face off against other players.

Why it could work for esports:

Pokémon is statistically the highest-grossing media franchise ever, with $150 billion in lifetime revenue as of 2023. With that sort of influence and popularity, it would likely do very well in esports. The turn-based nature of TCG Pocket makes it comparable to chess, where spectators anticipate what moves the player will make next. There’s also an intense strategic depth where gamers can build highly customized decks and engage in a variety of play styles.

Cooking Simulator

While we already have a cooking-based game on this list, Cooking Simulator differs considerably from Overcooked. Cooking Simulator is exactly what it sounds like—a realistic cooking simulator that gives players access to a commercial kitchen and a variety of different ingredients. It features a physics-integrated engine and various game modes to choose from, including Sandbox Mode and Leaderboard Challenge.

Why it could work for esports:

Cooking Simulator can provide the base for digital cooking competitions. With the Leaderboard Challenge, players can go head-to-head and try to prepare a certain dish according to the recipe and win based on their final result. With Sandbox Mode, participants could be assigned a certain star ingredient or a specific set of ingredients to work with. They could then get creative and produce their own dishes, graded by a panel of judges, just like a reality cooking show. Although they wouldn’t get to taste the dishes, they could give points based on speed, visual appeal, creativity, and finesse.

Star Wars Battlefront

Although Star Wars Battlefront has some of the appeal of other first-person shooters like Call of Duty, it hasn’t been able to cross over to esports. The game’s premise is quite familiar, with the large-scale battles on different maps, where you can either participate in a free-for-all or work as a team to defeat the opposition. The problem is that there isn’t as much structure in its competition modes, and there isn’t as much intensity compared to its counterparts. However, these potential downsides don’t have to be viewed that way.

Why it could work for esports:

If esports can harness the Star Wars theme and home in on the casual nature of the game, they could draw in gamers who’d rather avoid the first-person shooter culture and environment in esports. Moreover, the strategic gameplay, diverse modes, and visually striking moments make it naturally spectator-friendly.