Farming Simulator goes esports with a €250,000 pro league

I like to poke a little fun at the Farming Simulator games now and then, mainly as an excuse to link to this, but the reality is that it's a big and remarkably durable fish in the niche simulator pond. So big, in fact, that developer Giants Software is launching a Farming Simulator League, which is a competitive pro league with a €250,000 prize pool, and no, I am not joking. 

Believe it or not (which feels like a statement that's going to apply to a lot of this post), there were four competitive Farming Simulator tournaments held in 2018, in Switzerland, Germany, and Poland. But they were one-off affairs with relatively tiny prize pools—the biggest was at Herofest 18 in Bern, which offered a prize pool of €2890. This new endeavor will be "a full-fledged esports league with 10 tournaments across Europe," and real cash on the table. 

"Competitive farming is something people enjoy for years now, but it hasn’t been done in esports so far," Giants CEO Christian Ammann said. "We have lots of esports enthusiasts in our company who can’t wait to show the world that farming can indeed be fun and competitive at the same time. We believe we found the right mix of real farming and fun to play game elements to ensure everyone will find it entertaining." 

Each event in the tournament series will offer prizes and circuit points that will take the best teams into a €100,000 grand finale. Giants has partnered with Logitech, Intel, and noblechairs for the new pro league, and will work with service provider Nitrado for hosting and streaming. Tournament games will run in Farming Simulator 19, and will expand from bale stacking (which was apparently the basis for the previous tourneys) to "a competitive 3v3 mode where teams will challenge each other to determine who is the best on the field." 

Giants said it will reveal more about the new Farming Simulator League "in the near future." In the meantime, if you're still not convinced that this is a real thing that is actually happening, here's seven hours of competition from day two of FarmCon 18, which features an impressive performance by the Deutz Weise double-loader just ahead of hour four. No, I am not joking.

YouTube YouTube
Watch On
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

Latest in Sim
PowerWash Simulator 2 screenshots
'More evolution than revolution': PowerWash Simulator 2 is coming late 2025, and it's bringing online multiplayer and split-screen co-op with it
A child stands on top of a dinosaur exhibit, hugging the nose of a dinosaur skull.
As a real life museum employee, I'm a bit confused by the amount of pirate ghosts in Two Point Museum—but it's not going to stop me trying to make the most realistic exhibits I can
A citizen of a city
A lot is going on for Cities: Skylines' 10th anniversary—from freebies to new creator packs—but there's still a big ol' elephant in the room
Staring eyes in a face covered in oil
Death Stranding 2's PS5 release date is in June, let's hope it doesn't take 8 months to hit PC this time
Cities: Skylines 2 screenshot - street level at night
Cities: Skylines 2's asset editor remains a distant dream: Colossal Order is still working on it but says it's 'proven more technically challenging than initially anticipated'
Town in Tales of Seikyu with two townsfolk sat on the stairs
Tales of Seikyu is just your regular farming simulator, apart from the fact I've got shapeshifting abilities and I'm engaged to a pretty persistent kappa
Latest in News
A Steam Deck with SteamOS running in desktop mode.
A new and improved desktop experience just landed on Steam Deck and SteamOS is readying 'support for non-Steam Deck handhelds'
Olivia, a hunter from Monster Hunter Wilds, looks perplexed in an icy blue environment.
Monster Hunter Wilds players wonder if frenzied monsters are a little undercooked, as one slaps a sickly bird into a fine paste in just 25 seconds
Inzoi character studio - A Zoi designed to look like Billie Eilish
Inzoi is giving eager life simmers another free taste of its gorgeous character creator, with a bonus build mode demo for the architecture nerds
A group of adventurers plans out their strategy on a table of maps and documents.
This Pathfinder Humble Bundle lets you level up your TTRPG library and donate to charity at the same time starting at just $5
Sans, from the hit 2015 RPG undertale, folds his arms in a dashing suit as stonks rise in the background.
You can grab Undertale for less than $1, as the genre-defining indie RPG beats its all-time player peak for the first time in 10 years
Key art for the new Age of Empires 2 expansion showing an angry Viking and Japanese warlod.
Age of Empires 2 team continues to cook while delivering 'legendarily long' 8,000-word patch notes about 'the biggest updates' the 26 year-old game has ever had