Big Western publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard have gotten over their concern and discomfort with working with the Saudi Arabian government and are going all-in in 2025. Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 and EA’s popular football game EA FC 25 will be part of the Esports World Cup in the summer of 2025, according to an official announcement this week from organizer the Esports World Cup Foundation.
Overwatch 2 and EA FC 25 are part of a growing list of titles joining the eight-week competition that kicks off in July 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including Level Infinite/Krafton’s mobile battle royale game PUBG Mobile, EA’s PC-based battle royale game Apex Legends, Ubisoft’s tactical team-based shooter Rainbow Six Siege, Valve’s MOBA Dota 2, Capcom’s Street Fighter 6, SEA LTD’s popular PC and mobile battle royal game Free Fire, Tencent’s MOBA Honor of Kings, Valve’s tactical team-based shooter Counter-Strike 2, and Activision Blizzard’s first-person shooters Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty Warzone.
Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty League—the official league for all things Call of Duty Esports—took it a step further earlier this week when it announced that it would alter its competitive calendar in 2025 and beyond to facilitate the summer event.
During the 2024 Esports World Cup, EA FC 24 saw winner João “jafonso” Vasconcelos (playing for Luna Galaxy) take home $300K USD of an overall $1M total prize pool, with a 6-2 win over Tuzzy E-Sports’ Gabriel “Young” Freita. Also during the 2024 Esports World Cup, Japanese organization Crazy Raccoon beat out Toronto Ultra in the Grand Finals to take home $400K of a $1M overall prize pool.
The Esports World Cup is a multi-title, eight-week competition held on an annual basis during the summer, and is a replacement for the Saudi Esports Federation’s Gamers8, which featured an overall prize pool of more than $45M in 2023. The event is managed by the Esports World Cup Foundation, a non-profit funded (it claims) by a sporting grant from the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. The Esports World Cup is operated by ESL FACEIT Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi government owned gaming and esports company Savvy Games Group—EFG is home to a number of tournament organizers and broadcast production companies including DreamHack, ESL, FACEIT, and Esports Engine.
ESL FACEIT Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Savvy Games Group—which in turn is owned by the PIF and led by Chairman of the board and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler HRH Crown Prince MBS. EFG is home to tournament organizer ESL, Esports Engine, competition platform FACEIT, and esports and gaming festival company DreamHack.
Projects backed or owned by the Saudi Arabian government such as Esports World Cup are frequently criticized for helping the government engage in what is called “sports washing,” or using various forms of sport and entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms are actively highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.