Everywhere you look publishers are desperately trying to find what they think is going to be the next big eSports game. The eSports successes rake in megabucks, yet they are the exception rather than the rule. Nailing down the formula is a tricky process, and you only need look at Evolve to see that some publishers have zero idea what they’re trying to do.

Barely a week goes by without the launch of a new eSports contender, yet eSports has never been something you can force. Either the community takes to a game over the long-term or they don’t, and shoving televised matches down their throat won’t help either way.

Creating an eSports success is unpredictable then, particularly considering the proliferation of current successes and their long-term appeal actively working against new games. eSports titles tend to have extremely high skill ceilings requiring thousands of hours to master. When players are dedicating this much time to a single game, they don’t tend to have much time to check out what Battleborn is all about. Breaking through this barrier takes a monster hit. The likes of Overwatch and Rocket League spring to mind, however Rainbow Six Siege is the outlier in that it achieved its success almost entirely through word of mouth after a tepid launch.

All of this makes predicting the next big hit a mighty hard task. Looking towards the future we have the likes of Tekken 7, Battalion 1944, Marvel v Capcom: Infinite, Splatoon 2 and Dawn of War 3 among others, all looking to be the next big eSports hit. Which game do you think is going to be next multiplayer smash hit? What is the recipe for success? Let us know!