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League of Legends led all other games on Twitch with nearly twice the viewership of the second most-watched game, Fortnite, during the World Championship.
Meanwhile, Fortnite saw a huge spike in viewership for a short period of time thanks to one of Epic Games’ unique in-game events.
Finally, the Classic release of Blizzard Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft saw a dramatic decline in viewership during the month of October, as influencers reached the end-game and now wait patiently for new content to be released.
The following content is ranked according to the total number of hours watched on Twitch, from Oct. 1-31, with data compiled using TEO Access.
Year-Over-Year
League of Legends saw an increase in total hours watched year-over-year as alternate-language channels covering the World Championship saw a boost in viewership from October 2018.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Fortnite saw its viewership decline year-over-year, however the decline is much less noticeable than it was during the summer. While Fortnite viewership has been down across the board for most of the year, the summer months in 2018 were when Epic Games’ battle royale truly saw its meteoric rise.
Despite seeing a year-over-year dip in October, Fortnite still sits as the most-watched battle royale game and the second-most watched game on Twitch, even though the release of Activision’s latest Call of Duty title diluted viewership for its newest batch of in-game content released earlier in the month.
Top Content: League of Legends
League of Legends has established itself this year as being firmly in command of the top spot on Twitch as the most-watched game, and October is when the game truly shines.
The same way that January is known for being when the NFL playoffs take place, and October is known for being when all of the important Major League Baseball games happen, League of Legends esports revolve around the World Championships that takes place over the course of October, bleeding into November for the grand finals.
This year’s increase in hours watched for League of Legends came despite a slight dip on the main Riot Games channels, but that was negated by bumps in viewership for alternate-language broadcasts for French, Spanish, and Korean-speaking audiences.
What’s Trending: Ups and Downs
Following one of the best months World of Warcraft has seen on Twitch in terms of viewership with help from the launch of Classic, Blizzard Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online game saw a dip in viewership from nearly 70M hours watched to just under 30M.
As many players completed most of the game’s high-end content, there has been a lull in viewership as players await the opportunity to participate in more player-versus-player content. At BlizzCon over the weekend, the developer announced that phase two of the Classic launch will come out in the next week, and with it, a PvP honor system could give the game a new surge in viewership as streamers shoot to kill as many other players in open-world combat as possible.
The mayhem that is sure to ensure from players being rewarded for killing members of the game’s opposing factions has been one of the most hyped parts of Classic. If anything is going to stimulate Classic’s Twitch viewership in the next three months, this will likely be it.
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