Singapore “quietly” becomes a global hub for all competitive esports
Singapore has slowly become a premiere esports hub. Not many cities can brag about hosting all the major esports events in competitive esports. Once a host for both the LoL Worlds in 2014 and Dota’s The International in 2022, Singapore is becoming the go to destination for both PC, Console and Mobile Games esports competitions. The Singapore Tourism Board has recently fully embraced esports with core partnerships, guaranteeing more top CS and Dota tournaments for years to come.
Singapore is a World-Class Esports Destination
In the past few weeks we learned that Dota 2 is returning to Singapore, on top of the first premier international Counter-Strike esports tournament. BLAST partnered with AEG Presents Asia to bring the World Finals for the 2024 season to Singapore.
The BLAST Dota Slam is confirmed for 2025. The details are to be confirmed as described in the original press release. At the time Ms Ong Ling Lee, Executive Director of Sports and Wellness for the Singapore Tourism Board stated recently:
“We are excited to host the BLAST Premier World Final and the BLAST Dota Slam in Singapore. The Counter-Strike event marks the first BLAST-branded event in Southeast Asia and the inaugural Counter-Strike tournament series in the region, solidifying Singapore’s position as a world-class esports destination.
We are confident that the international participants and their legions of fans will have a memorable experience in Singapore, immersing themselves in the diverse and dynamic offerings of our city.”
With the Singapore Tourism Board on board (pun intended), there is now a push for more grassroots events to also get organized locally on top of premier events. We asked our partners over at GG.BET Esports about the recent boost to Singapore’s appeal and market potential moving forward:
“Singapore has a genuine chance to become one of the world’s leading esports hubs. Its unique geographical location, highly developed infrastructure, and strong government support for esports are attracting the attention of key industry players. This includes traditional PC/console S-Tier tournaments as well as the rapidly growing mobile esports scene. Major companies such as Blizzard Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Garena, Razer, Riot Games, and Ubisoft already have a presence in the country.
Moreover, Singapore’s high-speed internet and advanced infrastructure make it an ideal location for hosting large-scale international events. We’ve already seen this with past tournaments like The International 11 and the Olympic Esports Week, the first-ever esports event organized by the IOC. Now, BLAST, one of the top tournament operators, is hosting CS2 and Dota 2 tournaments in Singapore. These events confirm that top-tier esports has truly found a new home in the region. We can’t wait for the BLAST Premier: World Final (CS2) 2024 in Singapore. As the exclusive betting partner of BLAST, we at GG.BET can confidently say that each BLAST Premier tournament raises the bar, wowing everyone with its epic scale and attracting millions of viewers.”
To reinforce this statement, here’s the history of premier and memorable events that were held in Singapore:
- Olympic Esports Week Singapore 2023
- ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 (Dota)
- The International 2022
- LoL Worlds 2014
- Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore
- M World Championship 2020 + 2021 (Mobile Legends)
- PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2021
We can see by the diversity in genres and titles that Singapore embraces esports fully. Esports conventions such as ESI 2025 are further proof of this.
Positioned at the crossroads of two distinct types of esports, Singapore has a chance to be the bridge between the Mobile Games loving East Asia and Oceanic regions, and the PC/Console focused west. Furthermore, the audience in Singapore supports games on all platforms and their respective esports a true rarity on the global esports market.
Currently, only Shanghai and Riyadh can “brag” about having a similar type of fandom for both PC and Mobile esports. What makes Singapore unique however, is the universal appeal and troublesome-ness when compared to the other two.
