2026 Esports World Cup

The 2026 Esports World Cup (EWC) will be the third edition of the Esports World Cup, an annual international esports tournament series run by the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), a nonprofit organization funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. It will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 6 July to 23 August 2026 and is set to feature 25 events in 24 esports.

This year will feature one new game in the main lineup, the racing game Trackmania (2020), while Fortnite will make its return to the EWC, this time using the Reload game mode. On the other hand, Rennsport and StarCraft II will not be present this year. Due to their series' annual game releases, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and EA Sports FC 26 will replace Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and EA Sports FC 25, respectively, in the game lineup.

Similar to the first two EWCs, each game will host at least one event, some are standalone events while others are part of a larger competitive circuit. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang remains as the only game to host two events. A total of $75 million will distributed across all events, an increase from $71.5 million in 2025.

On 8 October 2025, the EWC announced the first 20 games that will be included as part of the lineup. Out of the 24 games that were part of the main lineup in 2025, Rennsport, Rocket League, StarCraft II, and Tekken 8 weren't listed among the initial returning games.^[1] On 11 October, Tekken 8 was confirmed to return as the 21st game in the lineup.^[2]

On 17 December, the EWC announced that it entered a three-year partnership with Epic Games that would see two of its games, Fortnite and Rocket League, host EWC events through 2028. The latter was featured in both of the previous EWCs while the former returns to the lineup after it was featured in 2024. In the case of Fortnite, rather than the game being played on the game's Battle Royale mode (during Gamers8, the predecessor of the Esports World Cup) or in custom maps made using the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (as was the case for 2024), the event will instead be played in Fortnite Reload, a variation of the Battle Royale mode, as part of the Fortnite Reload Elite Series.^[3] Trackmania (2020) was announced as the 24th and final game on 19 January 2026, which will also mark the game's EWC debut.^[4]

The exclusion of StarCraft II from the lineup meant that the 2026 EWC will not feature any real-time strategy games, which caused criticism from creators and fans from the StarCraft II and RTS communities.^[5][6] Rennsport is the only other game dropped from the main lineup.

Most of the calendar was unveiled on 20 January 2026, with the exceptions of Fortnite Reload, PUBG Mobile, and Rocket League. Like last year, the events will be held across a seven-week calendar.

The 2026 Esports World Cup will feature a prize pool of US$75 million, which surpasses the $71.5 million from last year. $30 million is allocated for the top 24 teams in this year's Club Championship, an increase from $27 million last year, though the champion club will still receive $7 million. $39 million will be distributed across the 25 events for their respective prize pools.^[7]

• Official website