Top Games to Watch
Online viewing and streaming has become a constant fixture of the video game community. With services such as Twitch and the recently unveiled YouTube Gaming available to the streaming public and eSports on the constant rise, it isn’t just about playing games anymore. It’s about putting on a show that others will want to see. Maybe you’re interested in seeing a destined match-up between your favorite eSports teams. Maybe you want to see how a professional plays to inform your own playstyle. Perhaps you’re simply looking to put on some enjoyable background noise and video while you do another activity. Whatever your reason, there are a ton of games hosting a ton of players that are willing to share with you and countless others. These games are the most active and interesting – the Best Games to Watch.
Updated 06/06/2016
Killer Instinct
If you’re a fighting game fan and you like combos, you will no doubt love Killer Instinct. The old school classic was rebooted in stellar fashion for 2013 and has since been a regular fixture in the attentions of the fighting game community. This is due in no small part to its comprehensive system of flashy fighting and stringable combos that push players to be creative and efficient with their character of choice. You’re sure to pick up some tricks of your own on casual and pro streams, but the big stages to watch are the Killer Instinct World Cup and EVO, which invite the best players in the world to compete for the grandest of prizes.
Overwatch
Overwatch is most certainly one of the newer kids on the block in this list, but its potential is practically limitless. Much like Team Fortress 2, Overwatch invites players into a team-based first-person shooter world based around a variety of maps and objectives. The roster is broad and heavily inviting to all types of players. Players were in love with Overwatch long before it released and now with casual and competitive modes and the forthcoming additional content and updates opening up the already content-rich game even further, Overwatch will be a game players and viewers alike should keep on their radar.
Rainbow Six: Siege
Ubisoft came out of the gate in December 2015 with a new twist on their regular Rainbow Six formula that pitted players against one another in attacking and defending teams on several different and varied compounds. More than just a simple first-person shooter, Siege puts players in the roles of different operatives that each bring a different arsenal and specialized ability to the playing field. The game has continued to be updated and with an emphasis on evolving team vs. team action, Ubisoft has gathered players of all levels to compete in the game’s growing competitive scene.
Street Fighter V
Street Fighter will always be Street Fighter. That is to say, if you have an itch to see the best of the best when it comes to fighting games, Street Fighter V is the place to check for the most technically proficient beat-downs in gaming. Like moths to a flame, Street Fighter gathers the attention of the best players from around the globe. Whether they’re prepping for a local tourney, getting ready for EVO, or just streaming to show off some new strategies on the characters in the game, you can count on an absolute wealth of variety when it comes to checking out Street Fighter streams.
Team Fortress 2
The humble game that began simply as a mod for Quake has certainly come a long way. Team Fortress 2 is one of the most beloved team-based shooters on the market, featuring several maps and modes for players to compete using any mixture of the nine character classes available in the game. Several leagues have sprung up across the world featuring free and paid competitive circuits for the best players out there. Even Valve has expressed interest in staying on top of the competitive scene. In a recent 2016 update, the company introduced a new dedicated competitive mode featuring skill-based matchmaking. In a year where team-based games are blowing up, Team Fortress 2 is out to prove it still deserves a part of the spotlight.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty has an undeniable spot in the first-person shooter eSports community. Where Battlefield offers a larger scale of destruction and Halo and Destiny supply a science-fiction take on the formula, Call of Duty is simply the cutting edge of visuals and feel. Advanced Warfare took the series to the future with rigs for each player that allowed for increased and flexible mobility adding a new edge to the competition. Black Ops 3 might be out rocking the scene and pushing the series forward, but Advanced Warfare streams are still around and well worth checking out.
Rocket League
Who knew that RC cars and soccer coming together could be so much fun? Rocket League has been a surprisingly fun and popular game since its release and there are no lack of folks out there teaming up to take on others from around the world. Rocket League is one of those games where teams are only as good as the sum of their parts. A good striker and a great goalie can be pivotal in deciding the winner of matches and the whole set up is electric to watch. There are a lot of teams and sponsored groups out there on the Rocket League eSports scene. Watch one match and it’s easy to see why.
ArmA III
Since its release, Arma III has been a constant figure in the stream scene of online first person shooters. The open-world tactical military shooter is massive in scope and ridiculously complex in its control. It’s the kind of game where if you don’t know what to do, maybe you are better off watching someone else play instead. Nonetheless, worry not because there are plenty of groups of people that coordinate Arma III’s complex set up and run it beautifully. Organized groups and sponsored competitions are still happening within the game’s community and it’s kind of beautiful to see a team execute strategies proficiently within the game.
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm is kind of a fresh breath for those who don’t want to spend hours upon hours learning how to simply accomplish the basics of a MOBA. In a world where most MOBAs have a high learning curve with a sometimes unforgiving community, Heroes of the Storm is a very accessible game. It still has a learning curve where players will be able to stretch the capabilities of their characters, but generally speaking, it’s a game built to invite all levels of dedication and with fan-favorite characters from every Blizzard entry, there’s quite an enjoyable mashup of dream fights to be seen and fought.
World of Tanks
World of Tanks is a massively multiplayer online game in which players wage battles against each other in a variety of armored mobile artillery. The game has had an impressive following for a long time and set a record in the Guinness Book of World Records in 2012 for most players simultaneously online (91,311) in one MMO server before again topping it again in 2013 (350,000+). The game has a team work rhetoric to it, with groups of players utilizing light, medium, and heavy variations of the tanks, tank destroyers, and self-propelled guns. The game’s eSports tourney, the Grand Finals, are a spotlight of the year worth checking out each time.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Hands down, Hearthstone is probably the best virtual card game that has ever been created. Between over 600 available cards and the 9 classes available with cards specific to them, there is a vast array of card combos, strategies, and playstyles to explore. Players will claim that there is a class or two that holds an advantage over the others, but the fact is that there is also an element of luck in the drawing of the right cards of the right time to ensure that most games between knowledgeable players will be competitive and unpredictable. With so many options for experimentation and a constantly evolving and changing meta-game, it’s easy to see why Hearthstone has been one of the most streamed games available since its release.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike has been credited numerous times with practically starting the eSports scene. Whether that is entirely true or not, it’s undeniable that the project that started simply as a Half-Life mod has had a constant following since its release. The classic terrorist vs. counter-terrorist competitive first-person shooter did much to boost awareness of the eSports scene and with the latest iteration, Global Offensive, on the market, Counter-Strike is now tooled towards bringing players one of the best competitive formats available. The world championships of Counter-Strike are a showcase of some of the most amazing strategies around and continue to gather some of the most versatile players from around the world.
Heroes of Newerth
Heroes of Newerth has been around for a bit, giving a little healthy competition to League of Legends and DOTA 2 and though it has yet to break through to the amount of awareness that those two have, it’s still nonetheless, its own enjoyable take on the classic MOBA formula. There are over 120 heroes to choose from, separated between the two factions of Legion or Hellbourne and tournaments are held often. The professional and amateur scene may not be as richly populated as other MOBAs, but Heroes of Newerth still has a flourishing and active online community.
FIFA 16
The world loves football. It’s a fact. While we’re sitting around waiting for the next World Cup, there’s plenty of reasons to jump into the latest edition of FIFA and take our favorite clubs out for a spin at virtual glory. FIFA 16 came out with a lot of fresh mechanics and new features to the system, one of the biggest of which is the ability to play as women’s clubs this time out. Having just released, the market on tournaments and prize play is still fresh, but FIFA 16 stands to be one of the most revitalizing entries for the franchise in years.
Smite
Smite is a MOBA much like League of Legends or DOTA 2, but where they take a top down and point-and-click directional approach, Smite places you in a 3rd person over-the-shoulder perspective in real-time control of your chosen character. The heroes are gods of all pantheons from the Greek such as Zeus and Hercules to the far eastern such as Vamana and Kali. The world championship for this game have been growing fast, attracting teams from all over to gear up with their favorite gods and see who is the best of the best.
Defense of the Ancients 2
The classic MOBA franchise has always had strong followings, both casual and competitive. So strong, in fact, that the DOTA 2 2015 Internationals had a prize pool of over 18 million US dollars. Pretty high stakes, and as much as teams lay it on the line in the championship scene, there’s still plenty to see in the off-season. With over 800,000 players playing on average at any time and the pool of over 100 selectable heroes available, there’s always plenty of different outlets to watch for tips on refining your own gameplay or just for the sake of enjoying a good player or team duke it..
Destiny
Destiny has been a hit since it came out of the gate last year for Bungie. There’s a lot of playtime to go into making your guardian the fiercest they can be and making sure they have the perfect arsenal for any occasion. Between speedrunning the strikes and taking on other guardians in the Crucible, solo players and teams have numerous outlets to prove themselves the best. Furthermore, with the release of The Taken King, the challenges and tools are ever evolving, fresh and exciting. Destiny has really put its best foot forward and has a wealth of amazing content to offer players and viewers in its second year.
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft may never leave the throne as the most popular, most played massively multiplayer online game of all time. It has no reason to. The game has evolved so far that the original and the current version are barely the same game in any way. So much is the division that there are streams specifically dedicated to “vanilla World of Warcraft”. There are constant streams and PVP tournaments hosted worldwide for WoW and, though it is a ways off, the announcement of the upcoming Legion expansion means World of Warcraft is far from being done.
Halo 5: Guardians
Halo has always been a firm battleground of eSports competition. Always innovating and generally staying ahead of the curve, Halo has kept players of all skills and backgrounds competing for well over a decade with its signature brand of science-fiction and adrenaline pumping first-person action. By this point, it would be safe to say that most people have heard of Halo if they’ve even come close to a game in the past fifteen years and with Halo 5 delivering the latest on the franchise, it’s still proving to bring players together for prime competition.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 had a beta that lasted for a little under a week. In that time, eligible players were allowed to test out the multiplayer and help the developers fine-tune the experience for the actual release. In that one window of space, play of Black Ops 3 propelled it to one of the most streamed games out there for the month of August 2015. Black Ops has always had a good showing and the third entry is another top notch improvement over its already lofty predecessors. Whether you’re looking for high-octane streams or the most adrenaline pumping competition around, Black Ops III has the content and the fan base to deliver fully on both casual and professional ends of the spectrum.
StarCraft II
StarCraft has always been a game that people love to play, compete in, and watch online. It is probably the most played professionally competitive real-time strategy game of all time and still enjoys Blizzard’s unending support. The series of entries making up StarCraft II has come to a close with Legacy of the Void, but the scene is just as alive and well as it has always been with casual and professional players competing for their place in the world-wide circuit
League of Legends
With a huge roster of characters and a rather comprehensive tier system, there’s no lack of players of all skills, backgrounds, and nationalities out there willing to share themselves for a multitude of reasons. However, the big draw in League of Legends is most certainly Worlds. Each season eventually arrives at a closing point, which means the top professional teams worldwide have gone through all preliminary tournaments to come together and duke it out to prove who the best is. Worlds has come a long way and its production values are at an all-time high, making it one of few true World Cup tours of gaming.
Did your favorite make the list? Is there an eSport or game live stream you really enjoy watching right now? Let us know your favorites in the comments below!
