In 2021, due to the weakening of the impact of COVID-19 worldwide, esports gradually began to leave the era of online tournaments behind. Some teams were able to easily adapt to the changes, while others endured the it harder, and some teams lost their shape and positions. Tournament results of the teams were reflected in their popularity, which, in turn, influenced the viewership activity. Esports Charts presents the ranking of the most watched esports clubs in 2021.
Disclaimer: ranking is based on the total Hours Watched of matches featuring teams in LoL, CS:GO, Dota 2, Valorant, Rainbow 6, SC2, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros, Hearthstone, Quake, Legends of Runeterra, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars, ML:BB, Halo, LoL:WR, Arena of Valor and FIFA. Data from Chinese streaming services were excluded from the statistics, as well as statistics of the battle royale titles.
Top esports organizations in 2021
| Place | Organization | Hours Watched |
| #1 | Team Liquid | 117.15M |
| #2 | NAVI | 104.65M |
| #3 | T1 | 104.57M |
| #4 | DWG KIA | 100.95M |
| #5 | G2 Esports | 100.09M |
| #6 | EVOS | 98.56M |
| #7 | Rex Requm Qeon | 84.86M |
| #8 | Fnatic | 77.21M |
| #9 | Gambit Esports | 76.65M |
| #10 | ONIC Esports | 73.30M |
#10 — ONIC Esports
Opening the top 10 is the Indonesian organization ONIC Esports, which owns teams in relatively young esports disciplines that are rapidly gaining popularity. The club has an Indonesian VALORANT roster, as well as Filipino (ONIC Philippines) and Indonesian (ONIC Esports) Mobile Legends: Bang Bang rosters. The latter is the most popular one: in 2021, the ONIC Esports ML:BB team managed to win such major tournaments as MPL Indonesia Season 8 and ONE Esports MPL Invitational 2021 for the first time in two years.
In 2021, fans generated 73.3M Hours Watched for the organization. At the same time, the highest number of Peak Viewers (3.19M) was gathered by the ONIC Philippines team during the game against RRQ Hoshi in the semi-finals of M3 World Championship. The team reached the grand final, but didn't manage to get the trophy, as it lost to the Blacklist International.
#9 — Gambit Esports
The ninth spot of the ranking is taken by the Russian club Gambit Esports, which has Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and VALORANT rosters. Out of these, earning the most popularity in 2021 was the CS:GO team, which dominated the competitive scene in the first half of the year. Also, the VALORANT team had a significant impact on increasing the Hours Watched and getting into the ranking: the squad won VCT Berlin Masters and reached final of Valorant Champions 2021.
The game between Gambit and Natus Vincere in the semi-finals of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 gathered the most Peak Viewers (1.44M) in a year. In total, matches involving the teams of the Russian club in various disciplines collected 76.65M Hours Watched during the year.
#8 — Fnatic
Fnatic took the eighth spot in the top of the most watched esports organizations. One of the oldest and most titled clubs in the world has rosters in many disciplines, including CS:GO, League of Legends, and Dota 2. At the very beginning Fnatic tag was associated with a powerful Counter-Strike team, but in recent years it was the League of Legends roster that collected the majority of viewers during the matches.
During the group stage of Worlds 2021, the Fnatic team gathered more than 2M Peak Viewers in the match against Hanwha Life Esports. Compared to 2020, the club has slightly improved its viewership (by about 500K hours), but still dropped by four spots in the ranking.
#7 — Rex Regum Qeon
Occupying the seventh spot in the ranking is the Indonesian organization Rex Regum Qeon, which has several ML:BB rosters. The club is also represented in such disciplines as VALORANT and LoL: Wild Rift.
The tournament that brought the RRQ Hoshi ML:BB roster the most Peak Viewers (3.19M) was the M3 World Championship. The result was achieved during the match versus ONIC Philippines in the playoffs.
In total for the year, Rex Regum Qeon's matches were 235.9 hours on the air (which is the smallest indicator in the top), but amassed 84.86M Hours Watched. ML:BB is the club’s main discipline which happens to be very popular in Indonesia. Thanks to this, the matches of RRQ teams were watched by 359.7K Average Viewers – which is the highest figure in the ranking.
#6 — EVOS
The sixth spot with a score of 98.56M Hours Watched was taken by the Indonesian club EVOS, which has several squads in ML:BB. The organization is also represented in two more mobile MOBAs – Arena of Valor and LoL: Wild Rift.
The club's most watched team was EVOS Legends, which gathered 2.39M viewers in the MPL ID Season 8 semi-final vs ONIC Esports. Note that EVOS.LGN became the leader of the tournament in terms of Hours Watched, although it did not reach the grand final.
#5 — G2 Esports
G2 Esports is opening the top 5 most watched esports clubs. At the end of 2020, the organization confidently took the first spot with a result of 92.8M Hours Watched. In 2021, this figure grew to 100M, but this was not enough to keep the lead.
One of the main reasons for the lack of views for G2 Esports is not-the-best performance of its LoL roster. In 2020 the team won LEC Spring 2020 and LEC Summer 2020, but in 2021 the team did not have any major victories. Moreover, G2 Esports did not make it to the Worlds for the first time ever, which is why they lost a huge number of Hours Watched.
The most popular team of the club was its CS:GO roster. The grand final of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 between G2 Esports and NAVI gathered 2.75M Peak Viewers, which is a record number for the discipline.
#4 — DWG KIA
The South Korean organization DWG KIA managed to climb one spot and took the fourth spot in 2021 with a result of 100.96K Hours Watched. In many ways, the club owes its popularity in the esports community to its main LoL roster.
DWGK took the second spot in the Mid-Season Invitational 2021 and World Championship 2021, and also won the regional LCK Spring 2021 and LCK Summer 2021. It is worth noting that the Worlds grand final between DWGK and EDward Gaming was watched by 4M Peak Viewers.
The number of fans of the South Korean team has grown significantly due to a series of achievements it had in recent years. In the new season that just started the match between DWG KIA and Gen.G set a record for the first week of LCK Spring 2022, gathering 671K Peak Viewers.
#3 — T1
Perhaps the biggest leap in the ranking was made by T1, the most popular South Korean esports organization. The club managed to climb from the ninth to third spot, and almost doubled its Hours Watched compared to 2020 (104.6M). At the same time, the Dota 2 roster was responsible for 25.1% of those. The fruitful performance of the LoL team was the main reason for the growth of indicators, given that 71.6% of the total Hours Watched were gained by this discipline.
In 2020 the League of Legends roster didn't attend Worlds, but in 2021 it took the 3rd-4th spot at the world championship. The semi-final match of T1 vs. DWGK attracted 3.54M Peak Viewers, making it the second most popular match of the tournament.
#2 — Natus Vincere
NAVI has taken the second spot in the ranking of the most watched esports teams for the second year in a row. In 2021, the organization expanded its presence in esports by signing several rosters in new disciplines.
Among the many rosters of the club, the most successful was the CS:GO team, which became the champion of PGL Major Stockholm 2021. The victory at the major was the first in the history of the organization, and the grand final against G2 Esports became its most-watched match. Compared to 2020, the Ukrainian club’s Hours Watched increased by 21% (up to 104.66M). At the same time, CS:GO roster brought 84.7% of the organization’s total Hours Watched.
Perhaps NAVI could have taken the first spot in the ranking if it managed to maintain a combat-ready Dota 2 roster that would make it to The International 10. But it didn't happen, and the team only amassed only 6.9M Hours Watched (6.6% of the total Hours Watched) for the organization.
At the same time, the share of the club's roster in ML:BB was responsible for 4.5% of the club's total. It should be noted that the team only played at M3 World Championship, but it has almost caught up with the team's Dota 2 performance due to the overall popularity of the mobile discipline.
#1 — Team Liquid
The most watched esports organization in 2021 is Team Liquid. Compared to 2020, the club has increased its Hours Watched by 43% (up to 117.15M). Team Liquid has a huge variety of rosters in various disciplines, which makes the organization stand out from the rest. Largely because of this, despite the lack of great achievements, the club managed to climb to the first spot in the rankings. Curiously, CS:GO became the club's #1 discipline, collecting 39.2M Hours Watched – which is only 33.5% of the total Hours Watched. Whereas for NAVI and T1, the share of the #1 disciplines in the total Hours Watched was more than 70%.
In total, the matches of teams were 1.3K hours on the air, which is 56% more than that of the runner-up (NAVI). Moreover, the representatives of Team Liquid played more than 900 matches in 2021, which is more than twice as many as NAVI.
The LoL roster of Team Liquid did not pass the group stage at Worlds 2021, however, the match against Gen.G brought together the largest number of Peak Viewers for the club — 1.71M.
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At the end of 2021, OG, Gen.G, Astralis, and DRX left the top 10 most watched esports organizations due to poor performance during the season. The clubs that became newcomers to the ranking included Gambit Esports, as well as ONIC Esports, Rex Regum Qeon, and EVOS which grew a lot thanks to the popularity of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. It should be reminded that ML:BB became the #1 mobile esports discipline in terms of Hours Watched. Falling just a bit short of entering the top 10 most watched organizations were Cloud9, Team Vitality, Team Spirit, Virtus.pro, and MAD Lions.
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