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

Diarmuid Early, the winner of 2025's Excel world Championship — (Image credit: Microsoft Excel World Championship)

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."

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: "I mostly saw that as pie in the sky thinking – but I had also thought the idea of Excel becoming a popular esport was unlikely, too."

The first round of the tournament involves competitors receiving an Excel file, after which they must answer seven levels' worth of questions over 30 minutes. Those questions get more difficult as competitors progress, and require they know more about spreadsheet functions to get a quick time. Other rounds have them unjumble data and more. It's a funny affair that aims to really test spreadsheet knowledge.

Microsoft Excel World Championship 2025 Finals Highlights - YouTube

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"It’s a niche thing in some ways but, then again, Excel is used by hundreds of millions of people around the world. I’ve heard lots of people say they have watched the championships with a friend who wasn’t into Excel at all, but really enjoyed it because of the excitement from the commentators", says Early.

Excel can be pretty powerful in the right hands. Back in 2024, someone built a Fallout-inspired game that runs entirely in the program, and that same year, a YouTuber created a 16-bit CPU inside a spreadsheet. Excel is so impressive, in fact, that we've even seen it support ray tracing. Kind of.

Early says "You can have a lot more fun with Excel than people realise" and claims to have built an Excel file that can "play Battleship better than most people." Next, Early just has to build a spreadsheet that can do their spreadsheets, and they could get an even more impressive time for this year's tournament.

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James is a more recent PC gaming convert, often admiring graphics cards, cases, and motherboards from afar. It was not until 2019, after just finishing a degree in law and media, that they decided to throw out the last few years of education, build their PC, and start writing about gaming instead. In that time, he has covered the latest doodads, contraptions, and gismos, and loved every second of it. Hey, it’s better than writing case briefs.

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