The Esports Foundation (EF), the organization behind the Esports World Cup (EWC) and the Esports Nations Cup (ENC), has today opened applications for its 2026 Creator Program — the largest co-streaming initiative in esports and a deepening of the strategy that has driven EWC’s growth since its first edition.
Co-streaming has been central to how EWC reaches fans across the world. In 2025, 3500 co-streamers were one of the key growth pillars for EWC viewership, bringing the tournament’s biggest moments into communities across every region, platform, and language.
The program reflects the Foundation’s view of how media is being consumed today. Audiences increasingly experience the events they love on their own terms — personalized, on demand, and through the lens of creators they trust. Recognizing that shift, EF is committing $2 million in rewards to fuel creators’ growth through the program, advancing the Foundation’s vision to grow esports by meeting fans where they already are and putting creators at the center of how the sport reaches its next generation of fans.
Building on that, the 2026 Creator Program aims to scale to 5000 creators across new regions and platforms.
EF’s largest co-streaming program to date is part of a wider growth ambition: to expand esports coverage to new audiences by making it more accessible across more languages and platforms, meeting fans wherever, however, and in whatever language they consume content. The program runs across both the EWC 2026 in Paris this summer and the inaugural ENC 2026 in Riyadh this November, and is built as a lasting pillar of how EF grows esports, not a one-off for a single edition.
“This isn’t just an esports trend; it’s a media trend,” said Wasae Imran, Director Broadcast & Distribution at the Esports Foundation. “Across music, video, news and sport, audiences don’t just watch what they’re given anymore. They choose their own experience: what to watch, where to focus, and how deep to go. Esports just lives further down that road than most, and traditional sport is heading the same way. It’s not about delivering a match in one format, it’s about opening up every way into the same moment and letting fans choose how they want to consume it. The Creators Program is how we build for that, by enabling the growth of creators that fans already trust to carry the world’s biggest esports event into every community. ”
Delivering that experience is built on EF’s wider ecosystem that enables publishers and platforms behind the program to make co-streaming as seamless and rewarding as possible for creators — from providing access to the tournaments they want to stream to the tools, discoverability, and platform perks that help them grow their audiences.
Through the program, approved creators can co-stream their favorite tournaments, complete missions, and climb the leaderboards, progressing a Battle Pass that unlocks rewards for both themselves and their communities. This can range from gift cards, gear, and consoles to streaming-platform perks and invitations to EWC and ENC. The program supports creators across many of the world’s leading streaming platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Bilibili, Huya, and CHZZK, among others.
The Creator Program will also extend to ENC 2026, allowing creators to rally behind their countries and territories at the first nation-based competition of its kind in November.
Applications for the EWC 2026 Creator Program are open now on the Creator Program landing page.
The Esports World Cup 2026 will be hosted at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles in Paris, France, from July 6 through August 23, bringing together more than 2,000 players and 200 Clubs from over 100 countries across 25 tournaments and 24 games for a record-breaking $75 million+ prize pool.
