League of Legends is still the king of esports viewership.
According to Esports Charts, the LoL World Championship had a whopping 3.9 million people at its peak during the tournament’s semi-finals between the LCK’s T1 and Europe’s G2 Esports. This eclipsed the Fortnite World Cup Finals, which had the second-most viewers at its peak with 2.3 million. The Free Fire World Series in Rio De Janeiro came in third with two million peak viewers.
Based on hours watched, Worlds 2019 was unmatched as well—the tournament saw a 66 percent increase from last year, going from 83 million hours watched to an astounding 137 million hours watched. The International came in second with 88 million hours watched, while CS:GO‘s IEM Katowice Major had 53 million hours watched.
The one category that League did not take was average viewership, which was instead won by the Free Fire World Series. That tournament had 1.2 million average viewers, compared to the Fortnite World Cup at 1.1 million, and Worlds 2019 at one million average viewers.
This year is shaping up to be another big year for League, with several big teams having made significant roster changes that could help shift the power balance throughout the global standings. There are so many different storylines to follow across the various regions, and it wouldn’t be surprising if League continued to break more records in 2020.
