Analyzing Forbes’ Most Valuable Esports Team List

The list is a good barometer, but shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games via Getty Images

It’s been a busy week for esports team valuations, which have continued to rise in spite of competitive gaming losing a bit of its shine. On Friday, Forbes published its annual most-valuable-esports-team list, a highly-referenced, but often-misunderstood staple on the esports calendar. 

With most esports teams still private, this is often the best look we get into what realistic valuations are in any given year—not to say, though, that they’re correctly valued. It’s important to recognize that the Forbes list relies heavily on information disclosed by the esports teams themselves, and that often results in a favorable skew for the teams. 

Valuations in esports are often viewed as an indicator of success. In reality, a valuation of a business is just where someone is willing to price it in the event of a new funding round or an M&A move. Sometimes that correlates to traction. In the case of esports, it usually doesn’t.