From a few players locked up in their basements to booking out and selling major arenas, eSports certainly has come a long way. With viewership numbers now in the millions, it’s interesting to look at the most-watched tournaments in current eSports history. Whether it’s League of Legends or CS: GO, there’s an eSports event based on popular games for everyone to enjoy.
This of course is not something which is confined purely to pro gaming circles around the world. iGaming in Canada highlights this perfectly and has really taken off in the province of Ontario, due to the presence of iconic games for people to try there. Roulette in Ontario has proved to be especially popular and helped the provinces’ newly regulated iGaming market to flourish since launching in April 2022.
When talking about eSports events featuring top games though, what are the most watched ever?
1. League of Legends 2023 World Championship
As shown at Statista, this was a huge event in eSports history and picked up a massive amount of viewers. It therefore makes it a must for this list and not something which can be forgotten about. The tournament itself, which took place in San Francisco, clocked in at 6.4 million concurrent viewers across all channels.
The jaw-dropping final match between the South Korean DRX and the Chinese T1 saw the South Koreans win with a final score of 3-2. The closeness of this result made it a jaw-dropping spectacle and one that really kept viewers enthralled. It was also clear that the sheer number of people watching the tournament was a testament to Riot’s success in developing its eSports scene in Southeast Asia and China.
2. Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore
Free Fire is a mobile game that stemmed from a PUBG clone. Quickly, the game introduced its own unique mechanics and adequately diversified itself to start competing with the game from which it was inspired. This all culminated in a 5.4 million player viewership in its 2021 World Series, taking place in Singapore.
Thanks to the pandemic with everyone at home, Free Fire saw a large increase in its player base, which naturally led to increased viewership numbers in all Free Fire tournaments that year. While the game is still popular, it hasn’t nearly matched the numbers it once had.
3. Mobile Legends M5 World Championship
Stemming off as a League of Legends clone, Mobile Legends was mobile-first from the start. Capitalizing on the success of League, Mobile Legends focused on introducing easier mechanics for a mobile experience.
Because of this, players who were fans of League but liked to game on the go were hooked. Couple that with good updates and developers who genuinely cared about the experience, the Mobile Legends M5 World Championship saw a whopping 5 million viewers tune in to see the Filipino AP Bren win the finals.
4. PUBG Mobile Global Championship 0
PUBG Mobile put in a lot of effort to grow its mobile eSports scene, especially because Free Fire had a head start in the SEA region. While they never met the same numbers, the first season of PUBG Mobile’s Global Championship stood out at 3.8 million players.
Taking place in Dubai and organized by Tencent, the developers pulled all the stops to turn the tournament into success. While they couldn’t replicate Season 0’s success, it did set up the stage for PUBG Mobile to become a major eSports player and directly led to the game having a consistent player base thanks to its pro scene.
5. CS:GO PGL Major Stockholm 2021
With 2.75 million players, CS:GO’s Majors have been happening for decades now, and it is quite surprising to see a 2021 event top the list in terms of viewership. The simple reason behind that is, again, the pandemic.
However, beyond that – PGL Majors have always been iconic, and the 2021 iteration was no different. With star-studded rosters and one of the best finals of all time between NaVi and G2 (with NaVi not losing a single map in the entire map), the tournament displayed the absolute domination that the European team had on everyone else.
Conclusion
There are two interesting takeaways from this list of the most-watched tournaments in current eSports history. Firstly, mobile tournaments clearly have a broader viewership. This is primarily because they simply have more players, as games are easier to play on a phone than virtually any other platform.
Secondly, viewership numbers did peak around the pandemic, particularly around 2021-2022, when most were clumped up in their homes. While 2023’s LCS didn’t happen in that timeframe, it is clear that a lot of games hit their peak numbers during that time.
