BestCasinoSites.net have researched the gaming capitals of the world based on numerous categories, including:
- Cost of internet and electricity
- Internet speed
- Number of Esports teams and their earnings
We were then able to give each capital city an overall gaming score out of 10—meaning these cities are amongst the best places for gamers to visit, or even settle down in for the long-haul.
So, stay tuned as we reveal which cities reign as the gaming capitals of the world, and can call themselves home to the world’s best gamers!
The Best Cities for Esports Gamers
When thinking about the best places for gamers to visit or live in, we can’t ignore the real pros who make up the top 500 of Esports players. Find out which cities come out on top for the number of competitive gaming players and their earnings.
Number of Esports Players in the Top 500
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One way to find the best places for gamers to visit is to look at how many make it to the big leagues.
Coming out on top for the number of E-sport gamers in the top 500, is Seoul, which has a brilliant score of 9.6 thanks to its 33 top 500 players. No surprises there!
Seoul is followed by Tokyo which has 21 players, Copenhagen (19), Paris (18) and Ottawa and London which both have 14 top players.
Highest Average Esports Earnings
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We can’t discuss Esports players without mentioning the money E-sports players earn —which can reach into the millions!
For average Esports player earnings, in first place we have Tokyo, with its players average earnings amounting to $197,396. Japanese player Fan Yang topped the charts for Japan, with his highest win amounting to a massive $714,275!
Next up we have Oslo, which boasts average Esports earnings of $181,844. Nice work! Its average was definitely increased by super-gamer Ming Ming, who topped Norway’s charts with a win of $464,345.
In third place we have Vienna with an average earnings amount of $164,900, and its star player earning an absolutely eye-watering $3,686,940!
In fourth and fifth place we have London (average earnings of $148,233) and Copenhagen (average earnings of $147,548), with their top earners making $329,766 and $769,883.
Highest Total Esports Earnings
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Working out average scores and earnings is all well and good, but teamwork is what makes the dream work. That’s why we’ve calculated the overall total earnings for each country.
In first place, we have a perfect Washington DC with its earnings amounting to a staggering $197,031,178!
Next up is Seoul with overall earnings of $115,410,674. Seoul is followed by Copenhagen where gamers have earned $45,894,610 overall. In fourth and fifth place we have Stockholm and Paris, which achieve fantastic earnings amounting to $44,237,940 and $39,899,723.
The Top 15 Gaming Capitals
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Top 5 Gaming Capitals
1. Seoul
South Korean gamers are known to dominate the world of Esports, boasting seemingly invincible Esports teams such as T1, DAMWON Gaming and Dragon X. So, it’ll come as no surprise that Seoul in North Korea comes out on top as the video game capital of the world, and home to many of the world’s best gamers who win those top E-sports awards.
With an overall score of 8.7 out of 10, South Korean gamers certainly are a force to be reckoned with!
2. Paris
We’re hopping on the plane to France to get to capital number two, where we’ll be arriving in picturesque Paris.
Serving up an overall score of 7.8, if you’re planning a trip to the City of Love and are looking to get a little gaming done while you’re there—you’re in luck!
3. Stockholm
Just sneaking into the top three, we have Stockholm, the cultural capital of Sweden.
As well as being the birthplace of one of the best pop groups that’s ever existed, Sweden can now also boast that Stockholm comes in third for the gaming capitals of the world too—surely its proudest achievement to date!
With a fab overall score of 7.2, look no further if you want to visit the stomping ground of some of the world’s best gamers.
4. Tokyo
We’re landing in the futuristic metropolis of Tokyo next, which comes in fourth place with an overall score of 6.9.
Despite its low latency, for which it scores a pretty mediocre 4.2, Tokyo did do particularly well in the overall Esports earnings category, where it came out on top, achieving an astonishing 9.6!
5. Washington DC
Just scraping into the top five is Washington DC, the US capital, with a score of 6.6.
Despite Washington’s pretty dire latency score of only two out of 10, this capital city certainly makes up for it in other categories. Washington achieves great scores for average download speed (9.2) and money earned by Esports players, for which it achieves full marks!
Gaming Capitals in Spots 6 to 15
As well boasting the likes of the “magical” Tivoli Gardens and the world famous Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen can add its gaming score of 6.5 to its roster of achievements, meaning it comes in sixth place. This is 0.5 points above Norway’s capital, Oslo, which comes in at number seven with a score of 6.
In eighth place we have Zurich, which comes in at just a smidge below Oslo, scoring 5.9 overall. For download speed and latency speed, Zurich achieves a perfect score of 10 for both categories! Hey, Switzerland, can we have the contact details for your internet provider please?
Similarly, Madrid, which comes in ninth place, also does very well for its upload and download speeds, scoring 9.6 and 8.8, which contribute to a pretty solid overall score of 5.6. However, Madrid lets itself down a little in the cost of running a PC category, for which it has a very poor score of 1.7.
At number 10, we finally step away from Europe and Scandinavia, where we reach Ottawa in Canada with a score of five. From the dizzying heights of a 9.2 for running a PC, to the crushing lows of zero (!) for latency, Ottawa’s gaming scores are a little hit and miss.
London calling! Just missing out on a place in the top 10, London achieves a pretty middling overall score of 4.8, as do Ankara—the capital of Turkey—and Reykjavik!
In 14th place we have Vienna, which scores 4.4. Vienna’s best category was Esports earnings, for which it scored an impressive 8.8. It didn’t do so well for upload or download speed though, achieving a measly 1.7. Yikes.
And finally, just making it onto our list of gaming capitals is Jerusalem, with a score of 4.3. With pretty mediocre scores across the board, Jerusalem somewhat redeems itself by taking second place for its low cost of internet, scoring a 9.2.
Cities with the Best Internet for Gaming
A city can’t be one of the best places for gamers to visit without it having some impressive internet. So, without further ado, find out the cities within our top 25 which have received the highest scores for the internet cost, download and upload speed, and latency (as well as the overall cost of running a gaming PC).
Cost of Internet
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Coming out on top for low internet costs is home to heaps of the world’s best gamers, Seoul, with 60+ mbps of internet costing just over $20 (about £16.56). Bargain! This is more than $6 less than Jerusalem which comes in second place. In third, fourth and fifth place is Rome ($28.68 for 60+ mbps), Paris ($31.20) and Athens ($32.61).
Average Download Speed
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Waiting for hours on end for your game to load is the bane of any gamer’s life, which is why a fast download speed is super important. So, you’re in luck if you’re gaming in Reykjavik which takes first place with a superb 232 mbps. This is followed by Washington DC (212.2 mbps) Madrid (211.7 mbps) Paris (206.6 mbps) and Seoul (199.5 mbps).
Average Upload Speed
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For some gamers, uploading is just as important as downloading. Taking the crown in the highest average upload speed category is Reykjavik yet again, with a super speedy 211 mbps. In second place we have Madrid with 192 mbps, followed by Zurich (189.4 mbps), Paris (153 mbps) and Seoul (147.3 mbps).
Average Latency
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It’s all about speedy networks for this category! With the highest scores for latency (computer network speed, for all of you who aren’t computer whizzes) in milliseconds going to Reykjavik (6.8 ms), Luxembourg (7.3 ms), Seoul (7.9 ms), Paris (8.5 ms) and Stockholm (8.6 ms).
Monthly Cost of Running a Gaming PC
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What’s the use of investing in a super swanky gaming PC if you can’t afford to run it? Taking into account things like electricity costs and internet prices, we’ve managed to rate our capital cities on how cheaply you can run a gaming computer per month there.
In first place, we have our star of the show, Seoul, with its monthly cost of running a gaming PC amounting to just $14.60—just over £12. In second place it’s Ottawa, with a cost of $16.64, followed by Reykjavik ($20.15), Oslo ($20.44) and Jerusalem ($22.92).
Given that these amazing gaming cities span the globe from end to end, if you’re looking to make bank or rub shoulders with some of the world’s best gamers, you’ll need to visit countries throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Better start on that passport application!
Methodology
BestCasinoSites.net sought to discover which capital cities of the world were best for gamers. First-world capital cities were chosen for this research.
- Download, upload and latency figures were collected from Ookla Open Data. This features average speed test data from the past 3 months
- A total of 2,620,220 tests across 785,859 unique devices were collected across the 25 capital cities.
- Internet speed data was available in a tile format across the globe. By using the administrative borders of each capital, we overlaid the data tiles with city boundaries to aggregate the speeds by city. Each city then had the average speeds calculated. Speeds were converted from kbps to Mbps.
- Internet costs (60mbps or more) per city were gathered from numbeo.com.
- Electricity costs by country were gathered from globalpetrolprices.com (figures are from December 2021)
- The cost per month of running a gaming pc was calculated as follows:
- 800 watts / 1000 (convert to kilowatts) * cost of electricity (kWh) * 6 (hours used a day) * 365 / 12 (convert to monthly usage)
- By taking the 500 highest-earning esports players (over the past 365 days – esportsearnings.com) and aggregating them by country, we were able to find which country has had the most successful players in the past year.
- All-time earnings (from 1998 – 2022) by country were gathered from esportsearnings.com. This shows which countries have been the most successful overall.
- Note this data is based on user submissions, meaning it may not be a complete dataset.
- Currency conversions were performed using Google Finance to convert them in real-time.
- All data is correct as of 20th July 2022 and is subject to change.