Every month, hundreds of esports tournaments and leagues take place across both PC and mobile platforms. With so much happening, it can be tough to keep up. That’s why the Esports Charts team puts together a special monthly recap for our PRO subscribers, highlighting the most-watched tournaments. These events garnered the highest viewership and topped the charts in total watch hours.
May 2025 was a big month for esports, filled with major events. Several Counter-Strike tournaments made it into the top rankings. Still, the real standouts in terms of audience reach were Korea’s LCK League for League of Legends and MPL Indonesia for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Keep reading for the full breakdown.
The most watched esports tournaments in May 2025
The most-watched tournament of May was the LCK 2025 Season, racking up over 39.5 million hours of watch time (HW). The Korean league hosted several key matches in Rounds 1-2, where Gen.G Esports stole the spotlight. Led by Jeong ‘’Chovy’’ Ji-hoon, the korean team went on an incredible 18-series winning streak, with Chovy himself earning MVP honors in 11 of those matches. There's no doubt he’s one of the top mid laners in League of Legends right now. Gen.G’s dominant form could be a major advantage as they fight for a spot at the Mid-Season Invitational 2025, with qualifiers set to take place June 7–15.
Coming in second was MPL Indonesia Season 15, with fans of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang generating 33.5 million HW in May. Unsurprisingly, the spotlight was on RRQ Hoshi, who topped the group stage and secured a direct spot in the second round of the playoffs. The most crucial matches are still ahead, but by mid-June, we’ll know who takes the Season 15 title. Just a reminder — both the champion and runner-up will qualify for the MLBB Mid Season Cup 2025, set to take place in Riyadh as part of the Esports World Cup 2025.
Rounding out the top three was PGL Astana 2025 — the first international Counter-Strike tournament ever hosted in Kazakhstan. It’s now the most-watched esports event in the country’s history. In May alone, the tournament pulled in 21.8 million HW. Team Spirit emerged as the champions after taking down Danish esports organization Astralis in the grand final.
Just behind the Kazakh event was IEM Dallas 2025, which racked up 18.9 million HW. While Dallas has long been a frequent host of Counter-Strike tournaments, this year’s edition was the most popular and most-watched to date. Over just one week — from May 19 to 25 — the city was buzzing with esports action, featuring a wide variety of tournaments across different titles, including Call of Duty, Brawl Stars, and even GeoGuessr.
Closing out the top five is DreamLeague Season 26, a Dota 2 tournament featuring a $1 million prize pool. The event drew nearly 18.8 million HW in May. It’s worth noting that the monthly viewership stats don’t include the grand final between PARIVISION and BetBoom Team, as it took place on June 1.
Just missing the top five in total watch hours was MPL Philippines Season 15. Other events that secured spots in the top 10 included BLAST Rivals Spring 2025, LEC Spring 2025, MPL Malaysia Season 15, and BLAST Slam III.
The most popular esports tournaments in May 2025
MPL Indonesia Season 15 was the standout tournament of May 2025, hitting a peak concurrent viewership of nearly 2 million during the final month of spring. The massive audience tuned in for the intense matchup between fierce rivals RRQ Hoshi and ONIC.
The group stage match between T1 and Gen.G during the LCK 2025 Season hit a peak of 1,370,583 viewers (PV). This helped the Korean league claim the second spot among the month’s most popular esports events. As mentioned earlier, Gen.G is having an outstanding season and remains undefeated in Rounds 1-2. Notably, Gen.G has already beaten T1 twice this season, and those two matchups rank as the most-popular games so far. Their first meeting back in April drew over 1.57 million PV.
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 was the third tournament in May to break the 1 million PV mark. Over a million Counter-Strike fans tuned in to watch the grand showdown between Team Vitality and Team Falcons. The French squad edged out their opponents with a tight 3:2 victory. Team Vitality is now riding an impressive 30-match winning streak — a streak that even the Korean League of Legends powerhouse Gen.G would envy.
Closing out the top five are two Counter-Strike tournaments with nearly identical peak viewership numbers: PGL Astana 2025 drew 920,009 viewers at its peak during the grand final, while IEM Dallas 2025 pulled in 914,887 PV during group stage broadcasts.
Beyond the top five, the peak viewership rankings featured a diverse range of games, including tournaments such as Arena of Glory Spring 2025, MPL Philippines Season 15, FNCS 2025 Pro-Am, MPL Malaysia Season 15, and LEC Spring 2025.
Keep an eye on our other PRO articles for this month:
- Most popular teams of the month (May 2025);
- Top esports business deals of the month (May 2025);
- Top mobile esports teams of the month (May 2025);
- ...and more coming soon.
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