China has regained the top spot in eSports following a gap of three years. According to the latest report from SafeBettingSites.com, Chinese players earned a total of $37m in prize money in 2021, putting the Asian country in the top spot of the global list.
Prior to this, China had finished behind the United States for three consecutive years.
United States Slipped To The Second Spot With 22.8m Prize Money
According to the data gathered from eSportsLearnings, China has regained supremacy in eSports tournaments for the first time following 2017. Since 2018, United States players consistently outshone their Chinese counterparts for three years, in terms of prize money. However, due to a number of reasons, China has outclassed the US in 2021.
In 2021, China made a huge jump as their annual prize money increased from $17.9m to $37.1m. Meanwhile, the US pool has severely decreased since COVID-19. In 2019, US players earned a total of 43.6m. The figure dropped to 23.1m in 2020 and further to 22.8m in 2021. The annual number of gamers representing the US has also decreased consistently from 2019.
Russia On The Third Spot With $21.9m
Russian gamers have made a massive jump in the last few years. In 2019, Russia didn’t feature among the top ten nations. In 2020, it was in the sixth spot with $4.4m in prize money. Last year, Russian gamers made an impressive amount of $21.9m to claim the third spot on the list.
South Korea occupied the third spot in 2019 and 2020. However, it slipped to the fourth spot behind Russia in 2021, with a total of $11.6m. Ukraine emerged as a force in the eSports community last year. The Eastern European nation was not in the top ten during 2019 and 2020. However, it made its way straight to the fifth spot with $10.3m in annual eSports earnings.
Brazil, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Denmark completed the top-ten list in 2021. The annual earnings of all of these nations were less than $10m. France was arguably the biggest loser in the ninth spot with $5.3m. This figure is a 50% decrease on their annual haul of $10.5m.
Vyom Chaudhary, an editor at Safe Betting Sites, commented: “China and Ukraine were the biggest winners in eSports competitions in 2021. The US representation has suffered a lot following their peak in 2019. The effects of the pandemic were still visible on the US eSports community in 2021.”