One of the biggest esports spectacles came to an end on August 25, when the last of the events concluded at the Esports World Cup 2024 in Saudi Arabia. It signaled the successful completion of a cross-event affair that spanned over 22 competitions across 21 titles, including prominent names like Dota 2, PUBG Mobile, Counter-Strike 2, and Street Fighter 6.
As expected, some titles and teams were more popular than others, attracting more viewers and playing a part in the event's overall success. To that effect, Esports Charts has collated some of the top tournaments at this summer extravaganza, which was announced to be returning in 2025 bigger and better than ever.
Most watched events at Esports World Cup 2024
Atop this list is the EWC X MLBB Mid Season Cup 2024, which boasted the largest prize pool in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang history at $3 million, with 29.1M Hours Watched. It had the top teams from regional MPL leagues and the winners of national qualifiers from countries like Mongolia, China, and Myanmar. Compared to its previous iteration, the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup, this mid-season championship — the first held outside Southeast Asia — could not match up across metrics. It finished as only the third-most-popular MSC event and the fourth-most watched one, with the disappointing performance of teams from Indonesia — a vital audience base for the game — being the primary reason for this decreased viewership.
Next is the Riyadh Masters 2024 event, which hit 26.3M HW to end as the most-watched Dota 2 tournament of 2024 so far. It boasted the largest prize pool of any tournament at the EWC 2024, totaling $5 million. However, despite all the top European teams, who are crucial to the viewership dynamics of the game, progressing to the final stage, it fell short of matching last year's edition in terms of audience reach, be it by average concurrent viewers (decreased by 11%), peak viewership (dropped by 29%), or watch time (fell by 14.14%).
Third is the Esports World Cup 2024 for League of Legends, which saw eight of the world's best teams battle it out for a total prize pool of $1 million. T1 maintained its reign atop the game's global scene, helping the EWC x LoL become one of the game's more popular competitions over the past two seasons. It also saw Gen.G experience its first loss in 24 games to Top Esports Gaming in the Quarterfinals, with its previous defeat coming on February 14. Compared to other LoL competitions over the past two seasons, this EWC offering was only 20th by watch time, although it does feature among the title's most popular tournaments since 2023.
The Esports World Cup 2024 for Counter-Strike is the fourth and the last tournament to cross the 10M HW mark. A star-studded line-up of teams, the intrigue surrounding G2 Esports' new roster, and unexpected results in the Playoffs all helped it exceed last year's iteration in our main metrics. Moreover, Natus Vincere, the game's most followed side and the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 champion, maintained its winning run with a win over rival G2 Esports in the finals. Over the last two years, it ranks among the 20 most-watched events in the game, but that again has a lot to do with shorter airtime, although it is the fourth most-watched competition this year when identifying events with at least $1 million in prize money.
Last but not least is the PUBG Mobile World Cup 2024, making it two mobile esports entries on this top five leaderboard. It was the game's most popular event this year, thanks to a much-awaited win for Brazil's Alpha7 Esports, one of the most consistent sides over the last few years. Fans also got the important announcement that the title's world championship would visit the ExCel London arena on December 7 and 8 for its finals stage. Compared to the last two years, when the PUBG Mobile World Invitational was held as part of the Gamers8 festival, it fell just short of matching the 2023 edition's watch time, with the poor performances of some prominent teams ensuring the online viewership was not higher.
Most popular events at Esports World Cup 2024
Most of the most-watched competitions also ended as the most popular ones, led by the MSC 24, which reached 2.38M Peak Viewers. The top match was the one between Falcons AP.Bren and Selangor Red Giants, which the latter won in a historic result for Malaysia, as it was the country's first international victory in MLBB tournaments.
Next is the EWC x LoL, which hit 1.11M PV during the Grand Final between T1 and Top Esports Gaming. Interestingly, this was the first meeting between the two sides since 2020, despite hailing from two of the game's most successful nations. Their head-to-head was all square at one all heading into the Riyadh clash, but T1's win helped it pull ahead and ensure the event was a success.
The EWC x CS2 tournament comes in third, thanks to the summit clash between G2 Esports and Natus Vincere, which peaked at 756.7K concurrent viewers. It also ended as the game's fourth most popular tournament this year, with the above rivalry fueling this viewership spike (it was also the two sides' sixth-most popular match ever). Another match between the two sides from 2024, a Semifinals meeting at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, also finished among their most popular clashes ever.
The PUBG Mobile World Cup 2024 is fourth after reaching 566.1K PV during Round 4 on Day 1 of the Finals. It ended as PUBG Mobile's most popular event this year and the fourth-most popular one since 2023. One of the main talking points from the event was the performance of Peacekeeper Elite League Spring 2024 champion Tianba, who finished third despite not winning a single round in the Main Tournament.
Rounding off these standings is the Honor of Kings Invitational Midseason 2024, yet another mobile esports entry that registered 356.5K PV during the Playoffs Semifinals between KPL Dream Team and All Gamers.HK. However, among all the games held, the showmatch between Team Honor and Team Kings, two sides consisting of famous pro players and influencers from around the world, was the most popular. This competition also ended as the most successful one in the game's esports history, beating the previous record holder by a massive 99.5% in terms of PV while clearing the closest HW challenger by a little over 32%.
