Smite draws the esports fans.
Smite draws the esports fans.
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Todd Harris interview: Smite grew bigger because of esports fans

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 10 min

If League of Legends is like the FIFA Soccer of esports, then maybe Smite is something like golf. The free-to-play online multiplayer online battle arena game has thrived for more than six years, and it has generated nearly $300 million in revenues from its 30 million players.

So golf is not a bad analogy, and it’s not such a bad place to be for a myth-themed game about gods and heroes in combat. Smite has a good demographic for its audience, and that audience has been growing in part because Smite has become an esport.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.