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Tropical easterly waves (TEWs) are westward-moving waves often within trade winds but occur ubiquitously in the tropics and play a significant role in the genesis of tropical cyclones (TCs). They are well-known as primary precursors of TCs in the Atlantic, yet their global relationship with TCs has been less explored. This study, for the first time, presents the global distribution of TEW activity using a combined thermodynamic and dynamic framework based on 6-hourly Outgoing Longwave Radiation and curvature vorticity. We then demonstrate that TEWs play a dominant role in approximately 22–71% of global TC genesis, with their highest impacts in the North Atlantic (71%) and Western Pacific (54%). We further identify that TEWs, in their general coupling with TC genesis dynamics, act to intensify TC convection and vorticity in all TC main development regions, albeit the vorticity enhancement is relatively weaker in the North Atlantic. To understand the cross-basin differences in this general TEW-TC relationship, we further investigated background conditions for TC genesis in each basin and found an additional dry environment constraint in the Atlantic TC genesis, yet still delineating the critical role of TEWs in TC development.