Counter-Strike 2 has taken home the honor for Best Esports Game at The Game Awards 2025, cementing its name as one of the most influential competitive titles this year.
As usual, the Best Esports Game was a highly contested category, but the popular first-person shooter by Valve managed to edge out heavyweights like Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and Valorant to claim the prestigious trophy.
Last year, the award for Best Esports Game went to League of Legends, the incredibly popular MOBA by Riot Games. LoL enjoyed another strong year for its esports scene in 2025, as did Valorant. Valve’s own MOBA, Dota 2, also continued its tradition of delivering enormous prize pools and tournaments packed with exceptional plays.
Despite such fierce competition, Counter-Strike 2 ultimately came out on top this year, a testament to its continued dominance in the competitive FPS genre.
Alongside CS2 claiming the Best Esports Game award, Austin Major 2025 champions Team Vitality secured the honor for the Best Esports Team.
While CS2 enjoyed an amazing overall year packed with great events, the Austin Major found exceptional success. The first Major of 2025 drew in a whopping 1.8 million peak concurrent viewers, making it one of the most-watched CS2 events of all time.
Fans looking to catch some CS2 action can do so right away by checking out the official livestreams of the ongoing StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, with the playoffs for the tournament currently underway at the time of writing.