Epic Games’ Rocket League is the latest game to be named an official competitive title of the Esports World Cup—the Saudi Arabian government-funded, eight-week esports competition taking place in the summer of 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The football-meets-competitive-car-combat game joins other titles that have already been confirmed for the event including Activision Blizzard’s hero shooter Overwatch 2 football game EA FC 25, MOONTON’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Level Infinite and 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 took it a step further earlier this month when it announced that it would make room in its competitive calendar for Call of Duty League next year to include space for the event during the summer.
The 2024 Rocket League competition at the Esports World Cup featured an over prize pool of $550K USD, which saw Team BDS take home the lion’s share of—$200K–after defeating Team Falcons 4-2 in the Grand Final. Like last year, the Esports World Cup 2025 Rocket League competition is not an officially sanctioned Rocket League Championship Series competition or endorsed/supported by Epic Games.
The Esports World Cup is a multi-title, eight-week competition held on an annual basis during the summer 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.
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.