1. DotA 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2)

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Valve. The game is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), which was a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently controls a powerful character, known as a “hero”, who all have unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, players collect experience points and items for their heroes to successfully defeat the opposing team’s heroes in player versus player combat. A team wins by being the first to destroy the other team’s “Ancient”, a large structure located within their base.

Dota 2 has a large esports scene, with teams from around the world playing in various professional leagues and tournaments. Valve manages an event format known as the Dota Pro Circuit, which are a series of tournaments that award qualification points for earning direct invitations to The International, the game’s premier annual tournament. Internationals feature a crowdfunded prize money system that has seen amounts in upwards of US$30 million, making Dota 2 the most lucrative game in esports. Media coverage of most tournaments is done by a selection of on-site staff who provide commentary and analysis for the ongoing matches, similar to traditional sporting events. In addition to playing matches to a live audience in arenas and stadiums, broadcasts of them are also streamed live over the internet, and sometimes simulcast on television networks, with peak viewership numbers in the millions.

2. CS:GO (Counter-Strike : Global Offensive)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) expands upon the team-based first person shooter gameplay the original Counter-Strike pioneered when it launched in 1999. Two teams compete in multiple rounds of objective-based game modes with the goal of winning enough rounds to win the match.

CS:GO features new maps, characters, and weapons and delivers updated versions of the classic Counter-Strike maps like Dust, Inferno, Nuke, Train, and more. In addition, CS:GO introduces new game modes like Arms Race, Flying Scoutsman and Wingman, and features online matchmaking and Competitive Skill Groups.

3. Apex LEGENDS

Apex Legends is a free-to-play battle royale game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 4, 2019, without any prior announcement or marketing. The game is currently in its fourth season.

In Apex Legends, up to 20 three-man squads land on an island before searching for weapons and supplies to then attempt to defeat all other players in combat. Each player must also keep moving to avoid being caught outside the play area. The final team alive wins the round. The game is set in the same sci-fi universe as Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall and Titanfall 2.

4. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PubG)

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is an online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole. The game is based on previous mods that were created by Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene for other games, inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale, and expanded into a standalone game under Greene’s creative direction. In the game, up to one hundred players parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons and equipment to kill others while avoiding getting killed themselves. The available safe area of the game’s map decreases in size over time, directing surviving players into tighter areas to force encounters. The last player or team standing wins the round.

5. Minecraft

Minecraft is a sandbox video game created by Swedish developer Markus Persson, released by Mojang in 2011 and purchased by Microsoft in 2014. It is the single best-selling video game of all time, selling over 180 million copies across all platforms by late 2019, with over 112 million monthly active players.

In Minecraft, players explore an intentionally blocky, pixelated, procedurally-generated 3D world, and may discover and extract raw materials, craft tools, build structures or earthworks, and, depending on game mode, can fight computer-controlled foes, as well as either cooperate with or compete against other players in the same world. These modes include a survival mode, in which players must acquire resources to build the world and maintain health, and a creative mode, where players have unlimited resources. In the Java Edition, players can modify the game with mods to create new gameplay mechanics, items, textures and assets.

Minecraft is critically acclaimed, winning numerous awards, and has been described as one of the most influential and greatest video games of all time. Social media, parodies, adaptations, merchandise, and the annual MineCon conventions played large roles in popularizing the game. It has also been used in educational environments, especially in the realm of computing systems, as virtual computers and hardware devices have been built in it. A number of spin-off games have also been developed, such as Minecraft: Story Mode, Minecraft Earth, and Minecraft Dungeons.

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