The journey from popular game to thriving esport is fraught with peril. It requires a delicate balance of engaging gameplay, high spectator appeal, sustained developer support, and, crucially, a dedicated and growing audience. When any of these pillars falter, even the grandest ambitions can crumble. Let`s delve into the stories of some of these fallen giants, understanding the unique circumstances that led to their competitive demise.
Paladins: The Budget Challenger in a High-Stakes Duel
Paladins, a team-based shooter, often found itself unfairly dubbed “Overwatch for calculators.” Launched into open beta just months after Blizzard`s behemoth, it undeniably shared a similar DNA: hero-based combat, distinct roles, objective play, and a vibrant, cartoonish aesthetic. Paladins differentiated itself with simpler graphics, a perk system, and, notably, mountable horses. It was, in essence, the more accessible sibling, designed for systems less capable of handling Overwatch`s visual demands.
Despite being perceived as a budget alternative, Paladins showed genuine esports ambition. Tournaments began as early as 2017, attracting major organizations like Virtus.pro, NAVI, NIP, and Team Envy. Hi-Rez, the developer, even hosted significant LAN events, including a 2019 World Championship in Atlanta boasting a $300,000 prize pool. A full ecosystem emerged: broadcasting studios, regional qualifiers, and professional teams. However, the Achilles` heel for Paladins, much like Overwatch in its early days, was its spectating experience. Fast-paced, chaotic team fights often left viewers disoriented, struggling to follow the action. While Overwatch compensated with a colossal marketing budget and the polished veneer of the Overwatch League, Paladins, lacking comparable resources, simply couldn`t overcome its viewing complexity.
The viewership numbers told a grim story: Paladins never cracked the 100,000 peak concurrent viewer mark for its championships. By early 2021, developers officially ceased esports operations. The game itself lingered, but in 2025, Hi-Rez announced the complete discontinuation of support for Paladins. Its servers may still hum, but new content, and certainly competitive dreams, have long since gone silent.
GWENT: A Witcher`s Gambit That Didn`t Pay Off
Born from a delightful mini-game within The Witcher 3, GWENT – a collectible card game (CCG) – once harbored hopes of a meteoric rise, akin to Dota 2 emerging from a Warcraft III mod. Its official competitive scene took root during its beta in 2017, a phase during which its mechanics and visuals underwent significant transformations before its full release.
CD Projekt RED, known for its meticulous world-building, clearly invested in GWENT`s esports appeal. Tournaments were hosted in unique, thematically appropriate locations – ancient castles, even salt mines – imbuing the scene with a distinctive character. These LAN events often featured $100,000 prize pools, alongside regular online leagues offering up to $25,000. A structured professional season culminated in a World Championship with a quarter-million-dollar prize pool, even attracting luminaries like The International champion Peter `ppd` Dager.
Despite this passionate presentation, GWENT`s esports audience remained modest, peaking at only 50,000 concurrent viewers. This is a common affliction for CCGs: they are often more engaging to play than to watch. Furthermore, the game`s official release in late 2018 brought significant mechanical changes and a rebalance that alienated a portion of its initial player base. CD Projekt RED maintained support for a few more years, but the grand, unique LANs vanished, and prize pools dwindled. The final official event, a World Championship in 2023, offered a notably modest sum. Soon after, CD Projekt RED handed GWENT`s development entirely over to the community, effectively signaling the end of its competitive chapter and full developer support.
Heroes of the Storm (HotS): The MOBA That Was Too Good to Fail (But Did)
Perhaps the most poignant example on this list, Heroes of the Storm (HotS) was Blizzard`s ambitious entry into the MOBA genre, featuring characters from across its beloved universes. It aimed to revolutionize the genre, not merely clone Dota 2 or League of Legends, by introducing shared experience, unique map mechanics, and a greater emphasis on team fights over individual farming. Initially, HotS found a dedicated audience, and with it, a burgeoning esports scene.
The first HotS World Championship premiered in 2015. Prominent organizations like Cloud9, NAVI, MVP, Fnatic, and Dignitas quickly formed rosters. The competitive season was robust, featuring transitional events with prize pools ranging from $100,000 to $400,000. The annual BlizzCon World Championship culminated in a million-dollar showdown. HotS esports, by all accounts, appeared to be a tier-S discipline: excellent production values, passionate fans, and big-name teams. Blizzard even established a collegiate league in the US, mirroring traditional sports models.
However, beneath the polished surface, whispers of HotS being a financial disappointment began to circulate. Blizzard had entered the crowded MOBA market late, struggling to contend with the established giants. More critically, the company wrestled with the game`s monetization model. Then, a month after the 2018 World Championship concluded, Blizzard delivered a shock announcement: the competitive scene was being frozen. HotS esports wasn`t a dying patient; it was a fully functional, active discipline. But, in Blizzard`s corporate assessment, it simply wasn`t profitable enough. And just like that, its history as a top-tier esport concluded. While community-driven crowdfunding efforts have since supported sporadic events, they are but echoes of a bygone era. In 2022, Blizzard formally ceased active development for HotS itself.
Wild Rift: The Mobile MOBA That Arrived Too Late to the Party
When Riot Games, the mastermind behind League of Legends, announced a mobile version of its global phenomenon, Wild Rift, the question wasn`t if it would succeed in esports, but how quickly. Porting the most popular MOBA to the most popular platform for younger audiences, with a developer of Riot`s caliber, seemed like a foolproof plan.
Yet, Riot was significantly late to the mobile MOBA party. Wild Rift launched in late 2020, by which point established competitors like Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) were already celebrating their fifth anniversaries. In such a saturated market, capturing a significant audience and rapidly building a competitive player base proved incredibly difficult.
Riot, with its unparalleled experience in esports development, wasted no time. The first tier-1 championship was held just a year after the game`s release, featuring a $500,000 prize pool and teams like Team Secret and TSM. However, the viewership was uninspiring, peaking at a mere 62,000 concurrent viewers. This could have been attributed to the game`s youth. The following year, Riot redoubled its efforts for the first full-fledged Wild Rift World Championship. They deployed their full marketing arsenal: cinematics, music videos, elaborate stage designs in Singapore, and promotional campaigns involving gaming celebrities. The prize pool was even inflated to a staggering two million dollars. The expectation was that it would replicate League of Legends` success. The reality, however, was a catastrophic failure: peak viewership plummeted to 54,000, and interest even dipped during the playoffs. For context, Honor of Kings boasted nearly 400,000 concurrent viewers, and MLBB often exceeded several million.
Months later, Riot announced the cessation of esports support for Wild Rift in all regions except Asia. While the professional scene isn`t entirely “dead” in Asia (leagues still occur with smaller teams and no million-dollar prize pools), it largely operates out of the international spotlight, confined to China and Southeast Asia. Riot is now experimenting with “entertainment events” like Wild Rounds: SMASH, featuring content creators, pros, and amateurs. But this is a far cry from the robust professional esports circuit once envisioned.
Auto Chess: The Auto Battler Boom That Went Bust
The “chess boom” of 2019, sparked by Drodo Studio`s Dota Auto Chess custom map, was nothing short of incredible. It boosted Dota 2`s average online player count by nearly 25% in a couple of months and single-handedly spawned an entirely new genre. Valve released Dota Underlords, Riot Games launched Teamfight Tactics, and Drodo itself released a standalone version, simply titled Auto Chess, in collaboration with Dragonest.
The standalone Auto Chess, released just months after the custom map`s success, appeared to be riding the crest of an unprecedented wave. The interest in auto battlers was immense, with Dota Auto Chess accumulating 7 million players and 300,000 average concurrent users within months. Drodo and Dragonest naturally believed their independent title would replicate this success. Early esports events with smaller prize pools ($5-10k) were already running for the custom map. So, with their standalone release, they went all-in, announcing a World Championship with a million-dollar prize pool – a sum rivaled by only a handful of top-tier esports at the time.
The 32-player tournament was held in Shanghai. While it was an international affair, official broadcasts were primarily aimed at the Chinese audience, making it difficult to gauge global viewership. However, the aftermath was telling: after the Auto Chess Invitational 2019, the developers` appetite for significant esports investment seemingly vanished. Smaller Auto Chess events continued, but the dream of global championships and million-dollar prize pools faded. The last known international tournament took place in 2021. Crucially, the genre`s overall hype plummeted even faster, affecting all auto battlers, not just Auto Chess. The official Auto Chess website, for instance, hasn`t seen a news update since 2023.
Gilbert Pendleton