We’ve all seen people compare esports events viewership to that of the Super Bowl, but it’s not an accurate or fair comparison. It’s hard to know that viewership is growing without actually taking the time to review the statistics and understand the context of different events.
Esports Insider has collaborated with esports analytical firm Esports Charts to take a look at event viewership on a month-by-month basis.
There isn’t a standard viewership metric that’s utilised and agreed upon by all parties in the industry at this point in time so it’s not always possible to compare events with a fair approach. Peak viewership isn’t the best way to see just how many people watched throughout an event, but comparing average audience numbers also has its problems considering some events can last a day and others a month.
With that in mind, we’ll be utilising peak viewership to observe the maximum audience that esports events are attracting.
Most popular tournaments of the month
The League of Legends World Championship is in the upper echelon of esports events, acting as the final test for the best teams in Riot Games’ ever-popular MOBA. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that it dominated both the narrative of the industry and the viewership of fans online, too.
With 3,985,787 peak viewers, Worlds was head and shoulders above the rest of the competitions that took place in November. What’s interesting, however, is that the four events that round out the top five in terms of popularity were all for mobile titles.
Free Fire took the second and third spots with the World Series Rio and Pro League in Brazil. The Mobile Legends Bang Bang World Championship occupies the fourth spot with the Arena of Valor International Championship rounding out the five most popular events.
The disparity between Worlds and the other four events in terms of peak viewership is certainly significant, but the former certainly has a more global audience than the others so it’s not an unexpected result.
Most popular teams of Worlds 2019
Since Riot Games’ annual world championship for League of Legends took place in November, it’s fair to say that it took a lot of the spotlight from other events. Considering the event is such a staple in the calendar and a spectacle in its own right, it’s interesting to see how much of an audience some teams commanded.
Esports Charts has highlighted the most popular teams of the event in terms of average viewers, and somewhat surprisingly the grand finalists don’t hold the top two sports. It’s T1 (formerly known as SK Telecom T1) that secured the top spot, with an average viewership of 1,683,833 people.
In second place are European giants Fnatic with 1,428,685 average viewers. Grand finalists G2 Esports lagged just behind with 1,402,980 viewers, though, surprisingly, eventual victors FunPlus Phoenix are to be considered the sixth most popular team by this metric.
With Christmas fast-approaching you may think it’s going to be a quiet month in the world of esports but due to the sheer amount of titles – and the desire for some event organisers to go out with a bang in 2019 – we’re expecting another busy month for fans!
Subscribe to ESI on YouTube
