Esports Foundation opens $2M co-streamer program for 2026 tournaments

The Esports Foundation is putting $2M on the table for creators willing to co-stream its flagship 2026 tournaments, marking the organization’s most ambitious play yet to decentralize how competitive gaming reaches audiences worldwide.

Announced on June 11, the Creator Program invites streamers from around the globe to broadcast official tournament feeds from the Esports World Cup and the Esports Nations Cup to their own communities.

How the program works

Creators apply to co-stream official feeds from two of competitive gaming’s biggest tentpole events, the Esports World Cup and the Esports Nations Cup, both scheduled for the 2026 competitive calendar. The program supports multiple platforms and languages, which means a mid-tier Korean Twitch streamer or a Brazilian YouTube creator could both qualify for a slice of that $2M rewards pool.

Applications are open now, giving creators months of runway to build their audiences before the tournaments kick off.

The bigger picture for esports monetization

The gaming sector has been attracting significant capital, with LA’s gaming ecosystem alone raising $2.1B in 2025, much of it flowing toward mobile and Web3 studios.

Where crypto and Web3 fit in

While the Creator Program hasn’t been explicitly branded as a Web3 initiative, the structural parallels are hard to ignore. Fan tokens from organizations like Chiliz have attempted to give esports audiences financial skin in the game, while GameFi studios have explored how competitive gaming can integrate on-chain reward mechanisms.

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