ENCE's bankruptcy reveals 79 percent revenue decline: A warning sign for mid-sized esports organisations

When ENCE eSports Oy filed for bankruptcy on Monday after 13 years in esports, it was not a sudden collapse, but the culmination of a documented financial meltdown. The organisation's revenue peaked at 6.3 million euros, but subsequently fell by 79 percent leading up to the bankruptcy – a decline that illustrates the structural weaknesses affecting mid-sized esports organisations during a period in which the industry is consolidating.

A drop of nearly four-fifths of revenue in just two years is not a random accident. It reflects a broader trend in which organisations in the middle tier are squeezed from both sides: they cannot match the largest players' sponsorship revenues and infrastructure, yet they still bear the fixed costs of professional operations. ENCE attempted to adapt by promoting its Finnish academy team to the first team in April 2026 and bringing in former Finnish star player allu as head coach in June of the same year. It was a clear cost-reduction measure, but not enough to reverse the trajectory.

On the day of the bankruptcy filing, the team sat at number 103 on the global VRS rankings and had not participated in a major MVP tournament since September 2024. This is symptomatic: without results, visibility disappears, and without visibility, sponsors disappear – a downward spiral that many mid-sized organisations know all too well.

The board of ENCE eSports Oy confirmed the decision itself in an official statement, making this not an external assessment but the organisation's own words that draw the final line. The question is whether ENCE is the first of several mid-sized esports names to succumb to the same structural pressures in the years ahead.