Most popular esports events of August 2024 — what outperformed Valorant Champions and IEM Cologne?

August proved to be a remarkably eventful month for major esports, with four tournaments surpassing a million concurrent viewers at their peak. Notable among these were the Valorant world championship and a major Counter-Strike tournament held in Germany. Despite their prominence, these events did not top the chart in terms of audience reach; instead, the leading position was taken by one of the largest regional tournaments in global esports. The most popular tournament in August was MPL Indonesia Season 14, where the match between RRQ Hoshi and Fnatic ONIC attracted over 1.97 million concurrent Mobile Legends: Bang Bang viewers. However, this figure is not a record for the Indonesian MPL league; previous seasons have seen peak viewership surpass 2 million PV during the group stage. The second most-watched event of the month was Valorant Champions 2024, which peaked at 1.41 million concurrent viewers during the grand final between EDward Gaming and Team Heretics. Despite featuring teams that were not the most popular in the tournament, the event still set several viewership records. It achieved new peak viewership milestones for Valorant on YouTube and TikTok and set new highs for the game in Vietnamese and Chinese languages. In third place was LCK Summer 2024, the Korean League of Legends championship, known for its consistently high viewership. In August, its broadcasts attracted over 1.27 million concurrent viewers during the series between T1 and KT Rolster. This number was quickly surpassed, as the league reached a peak of 1.62 million viewers during the final match in early September, making it the second-highest viewership in LCK history. Read also: LCK Summer 2024 becomes second most popular event in series despite T1's exit The grand final of IEM Cologne 2024, featuring Natus Vincere and Team Vitality, drew just over a million viewers, making it the second most-watched event in IEM Cologne history. The only higher viewership was in 2022 when 1.24 million concurrent viewers tuned in for the Counter-Strike tournament. During IEM Cologne 2024, ESL’s official YouTube channel set a new peak viewership record. Additionally, Ukrainian-language streams achieved the second-highest result ever in esports, just behind the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. Another top event for the month was the Snapdragon Pro Series Season 5 APAC - Challenge Finals, held in Malaysia. This Mobile Legends: Bang Bang tournament attracted over 888,700 concurrent viewers, ranking it as the second most-watched Snapdragon esports tournament, following the Snapdragon Pro Series Season 3 SEA finals in July 2023. Notably, the event’s broadcasts were the most-watched on TikTok, making it the 8th most popular esports event of all time on the platform. In August, English-speaking esports fans showed the most interest in classic PC games. The biggest audience for English-language broadcasts was drawn by Valorant Champions 2024, thanks to compelling community casting by American and Canadian streamers such as Tarik, FNS, and Kyedae. Read also: Valorant Champions 2024 set game records on YouTube and TikTok The peak viewership for English-language broadcasts of IEM Cologne 2024 reached over 522,500 concurrent viewers, with the majority tuning into the official streams on Twitch and YouTube. The standout community caster for the tournament was ohnepixel, whose channel alone peaked at over 110,000 concurrent viewers. For LCK Summer 2024, English-language coverage was mainly provided by LCK Global on YouTube and the LCK on Twitch. British caster Caedrel also drew a significant audience, with his stream reaching over 116,200 Peak Viewers. He was the only English-language community caster to appear in the top 20 channels covering the league. Completing the top five for the month was BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, which achieved peak viewership of 176,700 for its English-language broadcasts. This result was primarily driven by the official BLAST Premier channels, along with community casting by ohnepixel. French esports fans were particularly engaged during League of Legends matches featuring their local teams. For instance, during the EMEA Masters Summer 2024 and LFL Summer 2024 tournaments, the majority of viewers followed Karmine Corp Blue's games on kamet0's channel, which is run by the co-owner of Karmine Corp. The French audience continues to be pivotal for EMEA Masters viewership. Previously, the European tournament saw strong numbers due to the excitement around Karmine Corp’s matches. However, since Karmine Corp moved to LEC, EMEA Masters viewership has declined significantly, as Karmine Corp Blue’s academy team no longer attracts the same level of interest. The tournament's relevance was somewhat preserved by the rise of Gentle Mates, a new team founded by French streamer Gotaga, which quickly made an impact in several esports titles, including League of Legends. Despite this, EMEA Masters still faces the challenge of viewership being highly dependent on the performance of prominent teams. Read also: Despite longer format, EMEA Masters Summer 2024 could not maintain recent viewership run French esports fans were also highly engaged with the matches involving Gentle Mates. Several of his teams participated in the Esports World Cup 2024, recently held in Riyadh. Gotaga's broadcasts helped propel both Call of Duty and Rocket League into the top 5 most-watched events for French viewers in August. This is noteworthy for French esports, as Call of Duty is typically seen as a "classic American" game aimed primarily at a Western audience. However, the significant interest shown on Gotaga's channel indicates that the Infinity Ward shooter has strong potential in Europe. Conversely, Rocket League is already well-established in France, with its popularity highlighted by the presence of four French teams, including Karmine Corp and Gentle Mates, at the RLCS 2024 World Championship. In August, the official ESLCS channel on Twitch boasted the highest viewership among esports channels, largely due to its coverage of IEM Cologne 2024. The channel reached a peak viewership of over 212,100 during the grand final between Natus Vincere and Team Vitality, marking its best performance of the year. In second place was one of the biggest Russian streamers buster, who provided live coverage of IEM Cologne 2024 from the event's site. As the most popular community caster for the tournament, buster attracted over 170,000 concurrent viewers, reaching the second-best result of his career. Read also: IEM Cologne 2024 results: YouTube’s rising popularity, SAW’s record-breaking performance and standout community casters The official English-language Valorant channel reached a peak viewership of 145,900 during the grand final between Team Heretics and EDG at Valorant Champions 2024. This made it the second most popular channel covering the tournament. Spanish streamer ibai secured the fourth spot among the top esports channels in August. On August 24, he broadcasted the match between his team, Mad Lions KOI, and Fnatic in the LEC Season Finals 2024 winners' bracket final, drawing a peak viewership of over 143,800. American streamer Tarik 'Tarik' Celik from Sentinels ranked fifth with a peak viewership of 137,600. His channel drew this audience during the group stage match between Sentinels and Gen.G at Valorant Champions 2024. Interestingly, although Tarik covered the entire tournament up to the grand final, no match in the final stage matched the viewership of this group-stage clash between the two teams.

Most popular esports events of August 2024 — what outperformed Valorant Champions and IEM Cologne?

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