The 'LeBron James of spreadsheets' thought Excel becoming a popular esport was 'unlikely' before winning the grand prize in Las Vegas

The ‘LeBron James of spreadsheets’ thought Excel becoming a popular esport was ‘unlikely’ before winning the grand prize in Las Vegas | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG YouTuber hosts battle royale between 4 wizards from 4 different TTRPG systems—and boy does it end almost immediately, despite the DM’s best efforts Gaming Industry Videogames are ‘losing in the War for Attention’: Analyst says many of the industry’s biggest markets are spending less time on gaming Hardware ‘This is probably what Task Manager would look like (and sound like) if I were still around,’ says ex-Microsoft dev Dave Plummer about his synthwave-pounding AI dashboard AI Microsoft AI CEO curiously omits ‘Microsoft AI CEO’ from list of white collar jobs that will be replaceable by AI in next 18 months Gaming Mice Haptic click sceptics take heed, the Logitech Superstrike has already got a Guinness World Record Adventure The world’s first ‘standardized gaming test’ will see if you can beat an ’80s adventure game without a walkthrough—and it’ll even monitor you over a webcam to make sure you don’t cheat MMO Blitzball is alive and well in Final Fantasy 14, and I spoke to the community of passionate fans who built an entire 140-page D&D-like system to play it: ‘Once you start playing, you just can’t stop’ Horror ‘We cloned Gmail, except you’re logged in as Epstein and can see his emails’ is the most impressively cursed tech project of the year Hardware Engineers builds Arduino-led game console from a fidget clicker and I want to fidget with it so badly AI Microsoft CEO warns that we must ‘do something useful’ with AI or they’ll lose ‘social permission’ to burn electricity on it Dark Souls I give up: They’re doing no-hit Souls trilogy runs with a saxophone now Sim There’s a fantasy swordsmithing sim launching on Steam next week, which is a sentence I’ve been waiting to hear since browsing my dad’s replica sword catalogs in 4th grade Gaming PCs All hail the Bro MegaOrb: A custom-built, water-cooled Threadripper, RTX Pro 6000 monster that costs $60,000 or roughly the same as 16 GB of DDR5-5200 at today’s prices VR I tried to exercise in VR for an entire month, and I think I’ve finally been convinced to adopt the health-headset lifestyle RPG ‘A good idea, infinite drive, and lots of Diet Pepsi’: How YouTube essayist Majuular’s life changed course telling the story of Ultima across 2 years and more than 20 hours of documentaries PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Arc RaidersBest PC gearFalloutGame Quizzes Software The ‘LeBron James of spreadsheets’ thought Excel becoming a popular esport was ‘unlikely’ before winning the grand prize in Las Vegas News By James Bentley published 19 February 2026 ‘You can have a lot more fun with Excel than people realise.’ When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Microsoft Excel World Championship) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter You may not know this, but there’s an official Excel championship that runs out of Las Vegas with the winner claiming a belt and $5,000. As that belt implies, it’s a theatrical affair, like WWE for spreadsheets.Recently, 2025’s champion Diarmuid Early wrote about his experience for The Guardian, saying, “I have been called the LeBron James of spreadsheets, but I try not to take myself too seriously.”2025’s championship had dedicated player intros, a cheering crowd and hyped presenters. This is, as Early suggests, a bid to pull in more viewers than one might assume from, well, sorting spreadsheets quickly. “There’s more interest in it than ever. It’s now harder every year as a result, but the community is amazing.” Related articles The 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championship went way, way harder than it needed to with its wrestling-style intros and I’m so here for it This Microsoft Excel Easter egg led to a wild conspiracy theory that Bill Gates was the Antichrist Blitzball is alive and well in Final Fantasy 14, and I spoke to the community of passionate fans who built an entire 140-page D&D-like system to play it: ‘Once you start playing, you just can’t stop’ Early donated their earnings last year to the Against Malaria Foundation, and notes that future plans are to give much greater prize funds. Early also says winners could receive $1 million in the future: