In its first season using the franchising model, the Brazilian League of Legends Championship (CBLOL) broke viewership records. The peak was reached during the finals of the 2021 first split on April 18, between paiN Gaming and Vorax, registering over 400K simultaneous viewers on streaming platforms Nimo TV, YouTube, and Twitch. This number does not include the audience watching on pay-TV through the SporTV channel, which was not publicly disclosed.
Riot Games also registered an increase of 18% in the average concurrent viewers of each match of the tournament and, thanks to the new format which makes each weekend feature 10 games instead of eight as it was until 2020, a 47% increase of hours watched were registered, reaching a total of 15M hours watched only on YouTube and Twitch.
The CBLOL Academy also had a better performance compared to its predecessor, the lower divisions of the old League of Legends circuit: it registered an increase of 130% in hours watched and average audience numbers that were 28% higher. The circuit ceased to exist when the CBLOL became a franchise in 2021 and was replaced by the Academy league.
The CBLOL 2021 first split finals were won by paiN Gaming, which will represent Brazil at Riot Games’ Mid-Season Invitational in Iceland.
