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Streamers who want to broadcast the Esports World Cup on their own channels now have a program to apply to, and a reward system attached to it. The Esports Foundation opened applications on June 11 for its 2026 Creator Program, a co-streaming initiative that covers both the Esports World Cup in Paris and the first Esports Nations Cup in Riyadh, with US$2 million set aside for creator rewards.
Co-streaming means a creator rebroadcasts the official feed of a tournament live on their own channel, adding their own commentary and reactions for their community. The foundation says 3,500 co-streamers helped drive the Esports World Cup's audience in 2025. For 2026, its stated aim is 5,000 creators, across new regions and new platforms.
Esports Foundation release of June 11, 2026, announcing the 2026 Creator Program.
What the foundation announced
The release presents the 2026 Creator Program as the largest co-streaming initiative in esports. It runs across two events with two different logics. The Esports World Cup is the competition for clubs, held this year from July 6 to August 23 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The Esports Nations Cup is a new competition between national teams, scheduled for Riyadh in November.
The foundation is the organization behind both events. Wasae Imran, the foundation's Director Broadcast and Distribution, framed the program in the release with one line: "This isn't just an esports trend; it's a media trend."
The figures in the release mark the scale of the change. Going from 3,500 co-streamers to a target of 5,000 means 1,500 more channels, an increase of about 43 percent over the 2025 count. The release does not say how the US$2 million will be split between creators, between the two events or between reward types, and it gives no cap per creator.
Related readLeague of Legends community events: Riot's rules for creatorsHow the program works
Creators apply through the program's landing page, and only approved creators take part. Neither the release nor the foundation's program page sets out the eligibility criteria or a closing date for applications. The program page points to its frequently asked questions for how to apply.
Once approved, a creator earns by streaming. The foundation's program page describes the system in three layers.
- Apply and be approvedCreators apply through the program page. Only approved co-streamers take part.
- Co-stream and complete missionsStreaming tournaments earns points and rewards. Points feed progression on a Battle Pass.
- Climb the leaderboardsAn overall EWC Leaderboard and one per tournament. Top performers earn extra exclusive rewards.
A Battle Pass is a reward track borrowed from video games themselves: the more a player, here a creator, completes, the further they move along the track and the more rewards they unlock. In the foundation's version, progress unlocks rewards for creators and also for their communities.
The rewards listed in the release are gift cards, gear, consoles, perks on streaming platforms, and invitations to the Esports World Cup and the Esports Nations Cup. The program page adds that physical rewards are available only in qualifying countries, without listing them.
Timing follows the competition. According to the program page, the program launches with the official tournament schedule of the Esports World Cup, and creators start earning once tournament action begins.
Which platforms are covered
The program is not tied to one streaming service. The release names Twitch, YouTube, Bilibili, Huya and CHZZK, among others. The program page gives a slightly different list, naming Twitch, YouTube, Bilibili, Huya and TikTok, and also presents it as a selection rather than a complete list.
The foundation's own figures show how wide its distribution already was. In its January release, it reported that the 2025 Esports World Cup reached 750 million viewers and 350 million hours watched, with a peak of 7.98 million concurrent viewers during the League of Legends tournament. The 2025 broadcast went out on 28 platforms through 97 broadcast partners, on more than 800 channels, in 35 languages. The Creator Program works at the level of individual channels, beside that partner network.
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Set beside the other 2026 amounts the foundation has announced, the Creator Program is the smallest sum, and the one with the largest number of participants targeted.
| Program | Who it is for | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Club Championship | The top 24 clubs across the Esports World Cup | US$30 million |
| Club Partner Program | 40 selected clubs, up to US$1 million each | US$20 million |
| Creator Program | Approved co-streamers, 5,000 targeted, across EWC and ENC | US$2 million in rewards |
Esports Foundation releases of January 20, March 31 and June 11, 2026.
The Club Partner Program, whose 40 clubs were announced on March 31 for its third edition, supports clubs in expanding their brands and audiences around the event. It drew more than 175 applicants. The foundation reported that the clubs in the 2025 edition produced more than 300 million campaign views and engaged more than 10 million fans across more than 370 initiatives, including more than 130 watch parties hosted around the world. The 40 clubs selected for 2026 have a combined audience of more than 300 million fans, according to the foundation, which also counts more than US$100 million distributed directly to clubs through the Club Partner Program and the Club Championship together. The two programs work at different levels: one funds organizations, the other rewards individual streamers for carrying the matches live.
The Club Championship is a different kind of money. It is prize money, paid to the 24 best-placed clubs across all the tournaments of the Esports World Cup, with US$7 million for the winner, the foundation said in January.
The two events the program covers
The Esports World Cup 2026 runs for seven weeks. The foundation's figures for this edition are more than 2,000 players and 200 clubs from more than 100 countries, in 25 tournaments across 24 games, for a total prize pool of more than US$75 million. The foundation confirmed on May 20 that the event was moving from Riyadh to Paris, HLTV reported, and said that all announced titles, tournaments and competitive formats remained unchanged, with broadcast scheduling to be adapted to European time zones and a slight shift in the tournament schedule possible. The June 11 release gives the dates as July 6 to August 23.
Related readRainbow Six Siege co-streaming: how Ubisoft's Creator Program worksThe 24 games on the program are those the foundation announced in January: Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Call of Duty: Warzone, Chess, Counter-Strike 2, Crossfire, Dota 2, EA Sports FC 26, FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves, Fortnite, Free Fire, Honor of Kings, League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Overwatch 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, PUBG Mobile, Rocket League, Street Fighter 6, Teamfight Tactics, TEKKEN 8, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X, Trackmania and VALORANT. Fortnite and Trackmania are new to the event this year. Each of these tournaments has its own leaderboard in the Creator Program.
The 2025 edition in Riyadh drew more than 3 million visitors to the event and its festival, according to the January release, and the creator figures of 2025 come from that edition.
The Esports Nations Cup is new. The foundation announced in March that it would debut in Riyadh from November 2 to 29, 2026, as a biennial event that then moves to a different city each time. Its teams are national teams, formed from local structures led by National Team Partners: organizations and individuals that the foundation appointed in more than 100 countries and territories, from more than 630 applications from 150 countries and territories. The foundation said it was the first time in esports that national teams would be formed this way, and the June 11 release calls the event the first nation-based competition of its kind. Countries without a partner are supported through the foundation's regional structures.
What changes for creators
The program attaches rewards paid by the organizer itself to co-streaming, tied to activity the foundation measures through missions and points. Its leaderboards rank creators against each other at two levels: across the whole Esports World Cup, and tournament by tournament.
The release and the program page do not say how points are counted on either board.
Wasae Imran set the program in a wider change. Across music, video, news and sport, he said in the release, audiences no longer simply watch what they are given: they choose what to watch, where to focus and how deep to go. He described esports as further down that road than most, with traditional sport heading the same way.
His other point was that the aim is to open every way into the same moment, rather than to deliver a match in one format, and to let fans choose how they consume it. He described the Creator Program as the way the foundation builds for that, by helping the growth of creators that fans already trust.
What comes next
Applications are open now. The Esports World Cup begins in Paris on July 6, and creators start earning with the first tournament action. The event ends on August 23. The program then carries on into the first Esports Nations Cup in Riyadh in November, where rewards include invitations to the event itself.
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