After two years in Riyadh, the Esports World Cup is moving to Paris, in a shift that will test whether one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest gaming projects can hold its scale outside the kingdom.
The seven-week tournament will be held in the French capital from July 6 to August 23, marking the first time the event has been staged outside Saudi Arabia since its launch in 2024.
Mike McCabe, deputy chief executive and chief operating officer of the Esports Foundation, says the move was prompted by the current regional situation, while also reflecting a longer-term ambition to take the competition to other cities.
“Fans should view this as both a response to the current situation and a glimpse into the future,” McCabe told The National.
“From the beginning, our ambition has been to build the Esports World Cup into a global platform. Riyadh played a critical role in establishing the event and helping it grow into one of the largest esports competitions in the world, but we have always believed the model could travel,” says McCabe, adding that the Saudi capital remains “a central pillar”.
The 2026 competition is expected to bring together more than 2,000 players and 200 clubs from more than 100 countries, across 24 games and 25 tournaments. The prize pool will again exceed $75 million, keeping it among the largest in esports history.
Organisers said the relocation followed an extended evaluation process. Paris was chosen owing to its experience with major events, transport links and established gaming scene.
“Paris emerged as the clear choice because it combines world-class infrastructure, exceptional international accessibility, deep experience hosting major global sporting events, and one of the most mature esports ecosystems in the world,” says McCabe.
France has a large gaming audience and a record of hosting major international competitions. Paris also opens up the event to a sizeable European fan base while making it accessible to players, publishers, clubs, broadcasters and commercial partners.
However, the scale of the event makes the relocation unusually complex. Beyond professional tournaments, the Esports World Cup includes fan experiences, creator events, broadcast production, and entertainment programming over several weeks.
The Paris move will also extend to the Esports Foundation’s business calendar. The New Global Sport Conference, its annual business gathering, will stage an invitation-only summit during the Esports World Cup, marking the conference’s first international edition outside Saudi Arabia.
The main conference will then return to Riyadh from October 30 to November 1 at Sofitel Riyadh Hotel and Convention Centre, just before the Esports Nations Cup begins in the kingdom on November 2. This year’s theme, Defining Victory, will focus on how artificial intelligence, investment, monetisation, ownership models and fan behaviour are changing gaming, esports and sport.
Hans Jagnow, director of the New Global Sport Conference at the Esports Foundation, says the 2026 event will have “two clear moments: Riyadh in November, alongside the Esports Nations Cup, and a curated Paris summit during the Esports World Cup”.
The conference has grown alongside the foundation’s wider esports calendar. Organisers say the 2025 event brought together more than 1,500 delegates, including more than 500 chief executives, 25 major game publishers and more than 50 esports organisations. Speakers included Magnus Carlsen, Steven Bartlett, Hideo Kojima, Nicolas Winding Refn and Alex Morgan.
Moving the Esports World Cup has involved a full operational shift across travel, visas, accommodation, venue operations, scheduling and broadcast infrastructure. The event brings together publishers, teams, players, clubs, sponsors, media partners and production crews across several weeks of competition.
“The Esports World Cup is not a single tournament,” McCabe says. “The biggest challenge is not any one venue or competition, but co-ordinating an entire global ecosystem while maintaining continuity for everyone involved.”
McCabe says support from partners in France, including the French government, has helped the foundation move quickly without compromising the event’s scale.
Publishers, clubs and commercial partners have also been largely supportive, he says, despite the practical concerns that come with shifting one of esports’ biggest annual events to another country.
“Naturally, any relocation of this magnitude raises questions around travel, operations, scheduling and fan access, but those are practical issues that can be solved through planning and communication,” he says.
“What has been encouraging is the level of alignment around the long-term vision.”
The Esports World Cup began in Saudi Arabia and remains closely associated with Riyadh, where it grew out of the Gamers8 festival and became a flagship part of the kingdom’s wider investment in gaming and esports.
The inaugural event in 2024 offered a prize pool of $62.5 million, which was increased to $71 million in 2025. Organisers say the 2025 tournament attracted more than 750 million viewers globally and generated more than 350 million hours watched across 28 platforms, 97 broadcast partners and more than 800 channels in 35 languages.
The foundation’s calendar now extends beyond one annual tournament. The Esports Nations Cup, a biennial nation-based competition, will begin in Riyadh on November 2, immediately after the New Global Sport Conference. That schedule keeps Riyadh at the centre of the foundation’s year, even as the World Cup travels to Paris.
“The passion of local fans, the investment in infrastructure and the commitment to growing esports helped transform the event from an ambitious idea into a global phenomenon,” McCabe says.
The Esports Foundation remains based in Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom is expected to host the tournament again in 2027. McCabe says the Paris event should be understood as part of the competition’s expansion, with Riyadh still central to its future.
“Saudi Arabia remains the home of the Esports Foundation and a central pillar of our long-term vision,” he says. “The kingdom continues to be one of the world’s leading esports hubs, and the wider Middle East remains one of the fastest-growing gaming regions globally.
“Paris represents an expansion of the platform, not a departure from its roots.”
The question now is whether the Esports World Cup can maintain its identity as it moves beyond its original home. Paris will show whether one of esports’ biggest competitions can travel between cities while retaining its audience, scale and commercial pull.
“Going forward, we expect international chapters to become an increasingly important part of how the competition grows and reaches new audiences around the world,” McCabe says.
