Most Popular Esports Matches of 2023

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Esports fans are passionate about many things: their favourite teams, disciplines, and more. Every time an esports tournament reaches high or record viewership, there are many factors behind this achievement. The tournament organisers, official and community broadcasters, and game developers have a role to play, but the one factor that always influences viewership is who’s playing.

Most Popular Esports Matches of 2023

Rather than looking at the most popular tournaments of the year, in this piece we want to celebrate the most popular matches of the year, with a focus on the teams themselves and the context of their match-ups. 2023 was a record-breaking year for esports viewership, come take a look at which teams held the most exciting and popular matches of the year.

#10 - ONIC Esports vs ECHO (MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023)

Coming in at #10 was the match between ONIC Esports and ECHO at the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023. The Cup was a $300,000 tournament supported by game developers Moonton and it became the third most popular ML:BB event of the year, and by extension the fourth most popular tournament overall of 2023. ML:BB events are wildly popular, so expect to see ML:BB teams often in this ranking. 

The match between ONIC Esports and Echo reached 2.69M Peak Viewers for their match against each other in the Knockout Stage of the event. The winners of the match would advance to the Grand Final, with the losers being relegated to the 3rd Place Match. Ultimately, ONIC Esports were the stronger team and took home a 3:0 victory against ECHO to proceed to the Grand Finals of the event.

#9 - ONIC Esports vs ECHO at M4 World Championship

  The ONIC Esports roster which competed at the M4 World Championship, photo via MPL ID's Instagram   

In ninth place was once again ONIC Esports and ECHO, this time at the M4 World Championship. The M4 was the fourth edition of ML:BB’s yearly championship, but it took place in January of 2023, making it the first of two events this year after the M5 finished last weekend on December 17. 

This match between ONIC and ECHO was totally different from the previous one. ECHO and ONIC met in the Upper Bracket Semifinal instead of the Lower Bracket this time, and ECHO took home a comfortable 3:1 victory against ONIC. ONIC would proceed to be eliminated in the Lower Bracket Semifinal, and although ECHO was knocked down to the Lower Bracket Final, they proceeded to qualify for the Grand Final and beat rivals Blacklist International 4:0 for a clean sweep.

#8 - T1 vs LNG Esports at Worlds 2023

In eighth was our first match outside of ML:BB, T1 against LNG Esports at the League of Legends 2023 World Championship. The match was T1’s first appearance in the Playoffs stage of Worlds 2023, and it marked the first of three times that the Korean team would face off against a Chinese rival this Playoffs. 

T1 started their Playoffs run at Worlds 2023 strong and they received 3M Peak Viewers for this match where they defeated LNG Esports 3:0. This was only the beginning of T1’s journey through the Playoffs stage of the yearly world championship, so expect more of their matches further up this list.

#7 - ECHO Esports vs Blacklist International at M4 World Championship

Moving back from League of Legends to ML:BB, next up was another ECHO match, this time against Blacklist International. As we mentioned earlier, this was the Grand Final match of the M4 World Championship and ECHO took home a clean 4:0 victory after advancing through the Lower Bracket to meet Blacklist International. 

  ECHO became the World Champions at the M4 World Championship event  

Despite being the Grand Finals of the event and receiving over 3M+ Peak Viewers, this was by far not the most popular match of the M4. The match featured Blacklist International and ECHO, two Phillipino teams. After the Phillippines host a large potential audience for ML:BB esports, the audience is not as large as the Indonesian one. The M4 Grand Final between two Philippine teams set a viewership record for English-speaking and Tagalog-speaking fans at the event, but without the strength of Indonesian viewership, it was unable to set a new record for the event series.

#6 - RRQ Hoshi vs ECHO at M4 World Championship

Next up is the match between RRQ Hoshi and ECHO at the M4 event. The match was the Lower Bracket Final of the event and the last time that an Indonesian team was able to compete in the M4. ONIC Esports, the at-the-time reigning champions, was eliminated earlier by RRQ Hoshi in the previous Lower Bracket match, meaning RRQ Hoshi was the final chance for their region to succeed.

Ultimately, RRQ Hoshi was eliminated 1:3 by ECHO and their Phillippino rivals advanced to the Grand Final of the event. Although the all-Philippino Final was surely exciting for fans of the region, it had a significant negative effect on the viewership of this final. Comparing the RRQ vs ECHO match to the BI vs ECHO game, the Grand Final received over 1M fewer Indonesian concurrent viewers at peak than the Lower Bracket Final featuring RRQ Hoshi. Critically, this was not even the most popular game of the tournament among Indonesian fans.

#5 - ONIC vs BI at MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023

Returning to the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 for the final time: the Grand Final match between two of the strongest teams in the Southeast Asian sphere of esports received 3.65M Peak Viewers. ONIC Esports was once again the reigning champions of the Indonesian region, and they faced off against the runner-ups of the Phillipino region, Blacklist International.

The Final match at the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 was important for two critical reasons: firstly, the match decided who would take home the grand prize of $140K for first place in the event, but even more importantly, this tournament was a mid-point between the M4 and M5. The M4 World Championship took place in January of 2023, and the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 was hosted in June of the same year, almost 6 months before the M5 kicked off in November. The MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2023 allowed fans of the esports discipline to gauge the teams’ strength before the M5 began later that year.

#4 - BI vs RRQ Hoshi at M4 World Championship

Just outside of the podium places, was the final match of the M4 to feature in this list. As mentioned, the most popular match of this event was not the Grand Finals, but the Upper Bracket Semifinal match between RRQ Hoshi and Blacklist International: two of the strongest teams from the Southeast Asian region.

  RRQ Hoshi's roster at the MPL Indonesia Season 10 Playoffs  

Blacklist International had become world champions at the previous M3 event and was aiming to do it all again, whereas RRQ Hoshi had finished in 2nd place at the inaugural M1 event and was looking for their first championship. In total, the event reached 4.27M Peak Viewers, becoming the first match ever in ML:BB to reach over 4M concurrent viewers.

More than half of the total concurrent viewers came from Indonesian-speaking audiences, proving the extremely strong power of Indonesian broadcasters in the region. The RRQ Hoshi team were unable to beat their rivals in this match, and no other match of the M4 was able to reach the same viewership heights as this match after RRQ Hoshi lost 2:3 to Blacklist International. 

#3 - T1 vs JD Gaming at Worlds 2023

Taking up the first of the podium places of this ranking, T1’s match against JD Gaming at the Worlds 2023 event. The Semifinal match between these two teams was highly anticipated, with JD Gaming being the reigning champion of the Chinese region at the time, having been victorious at the LPL 2023 Summer event.

Although T1 had suffered a rockier Group Stage than their Chinese rivals, they looked extremely capable in this Semifinal match. T1 went on to take a 3:1 victory against their Chinese rivals, shocking the world with how easily they overcame them. The match reached 4.31M Peak Viewers and became the most popular match of the event for both Chinese and Korean-speaking audiences. All that was left of the Worlds 2023 event at this point was the Grand Finals.

#2 - ONIC vs AP.Bren at M5 World Championship

Coming in second place on these rankings was the Grand Final match of the M5 World Championship: ONIC Esports vs AP.Bren. ONIC Esports once again competed as the champions of the Indonesian region, but the Phillopino teams at the event had a history of success at the World Championships. Both AP.Bren and Blacklist International had won previous World Championship events, the M2 and M3, respectively, and they looked strong coming into this event.

AP.Bren is a newly founded collaboration between Bren Esports and AP Esports, and they were ultimately successful in overcoming rivals ONIC Esports and winning the entire M5 World Championship event. AP.Bren took home $300K and ONIC Esports received $120K. Importantly, the match managed to receive high viewership from both Indonesian and Phillipino audiences for this event. With the combined forces of these regions, the M5 World Championship Grand Final match reached 5.07M Peak Viewers, the first-ever ML:BB event to break the 5M concurrent viewers barrier.

  The most popular esports matches of the year by peak concurrent viewers  

#1 T1 vs Weibo Gaming at Worlds 2023

Coming in first place as the most popular match of the entire year of esports was T1 against Weibo Gaming, the Grand Final match of the League of Legends World Championship 2023. Weibo Gaming was the bottom-seeded Chinese team at Worlds 2023, having only qualified by finishing second at the regional finals, they were seeded behind regional finals winner LNG Esports, LPL 2023 Summer champion JD Gaming, and LPL 2023 Championship Points leader BiliBili Gaming.

Whereas T1 had a relatively easy time advancing through the Playoffs stage, Weibo Gaming suffered a close game against immediate rivals BiliBili Gaming in the Semifinals. After clinching a close 3:2 victory against that team, they advanced to the Grand Finals where they had to face one of the top teams in the world. Sadly, Weibo Gaming was quickly dispatched 0:3 by T1 in this match, crowning the Korean esports team with another world championship to their belt.

T1 proved year after year to be the most popular esports organisation and team in the industry, and 2023 was no different. Worlds 2023 became the most popular esports tournament ever thanks to T1 and Weibo Gaming's help, and the only three matches of Worlds 2023 to feature in this top 10 ranking featured T1 themselves. They continue to boost the viewership of events they compete in and drive League of Legends viewership to new heights year after year.

Most Popular Matches, one per discipline

League of Legends of course sits on top as the reigning champion of esports viewership. The 6.4M Peak Viewers recorded at Worlds 2023 was higher than many would have predicted, especially featuring a team such as Weibo Gaming which has a relatively small following outside of mainland China. 

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was the second top discipline, representing mobile gaming esports from around the globe. The match between ONIC Esports and AP.Bren at the M5 World Championship was the first ML:BB match to break 5M PV, but it likely won’t be the last. Keep an eye out on the developing mobile gaming esports industry at the moment, in upcoming years the challenge of transforming these viewership numbers into a profit will be a defining theme of this section of esports.

The third discipline we looked at for this ranking was Counter-Strike. Of course, Counter-Strike was divided into CS:GO and CS2 throughout 2023, but CS:GO hosted the most popular match of the year instead of CS2. Although you might think that fans were excited about the release of CS2 and watching tournaments then, fans were much more excited for what would be the final Major of CS:GO. 

At the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, Team Vitality took on GamerLegion for the Grand Final. GamerLegion is a German esports organisation that struggled to compete at a handful of larger events in 2022. In 2023, the team qualified for some events but the BLAST.tv Major was by far the biggest event they managed to qualify for. GamerLegion struggled earlier in the event, barely escaping the Challengers Stage and advancing further. Eventually, they managed to qualify for the Playoffs.

It was no surprise that Team Vitality had qualified for the Grand Finals. The French esports organisation was ranked #2 in the world by HLTV.org before this event, and after their victory over GamerLegion to win the Major, they settled in as #1 in the world for a significant amount of time. In total, the match received 1.52M Peak Viewers as GamerLegion gave it their all against Team Vitality. Perhaps competing on the world stage so early was a bad idea for GamerLegion, as they ended up having two of their star players, iM and siuhy, acquired by rival teams NAVI and MOUZ, respectively. 

  Team Vitality took home a Major championship in Paris on home soil  

Valorant managed slightly fewer Peak Viewers than Counter-Strike, having reached 1.44M Peak Viewers at the Brazillian LOCK IN event. The key for the high viewership at this match between Fnatic and LOUD was Portuguese-language viewership.

In Valorant, Portuguese-speaking viewership is highly important for international events reaching high viewership. We saw at the recent VALORANT Champions 2023 event that LOUD hosted some of the most popular matches of the event, far more popular than other matches. This was equally true at the first international event of 2023, the LOCK IN São Paulo event.

The Brazillian crowd gave way to even more Portuguese-speaking viewership online, and it reached its peak when LOUD advanced to compete against Fnatic in the Grand Final. Ultimately, Fnatic were the victors at this tournament, taking home their first international victory of the year from the event. But this match remains Valorant’s most popular match of the year with 1.44M Peak Viewers, thanks to a huge boost from Portuguese-speaking audiences for this match. 

  Team Spirit at The International 2023, photo via Valve Software  

Finally, Team Spirit against Gaimin Gladiators was the most popular Dota 2 match of the year. The match was the Grand Final of The International Dota 2 Championships 2023, a yearly international ultimate championship for the year of competition. The match was one of two matches at the event to break over 1M concurrent viewers, and it received over 170K more concurrent viewers at peak than the next most popular match of the event.

In total, the Grand Finals between Team Spirit and Gaimin Gladiators reached 1.44M Peak Viewers, only about 2K viewers fewer than the Valorant match. Team Spirit have had an extremely dominant showing in Dota 2 this year. The team has competed in only 12 tournaments since the beginning of 2023, and they finished in either 1st or 2nd at a majority of these events. For winning the Riyadh Masters 2023 event, they took home $5M in prize money, and they have been victorious at some of the biggest events of the year.

Gaimin Gladiators on the other hand have also had an extremely strong 2023. The European organisation entered Dota 2 in 2022, and they have had a largely successful time since then. The Gaimin Gladiators roster was even able to win some events that Team Spirit also competed at, such as the Bali Major 2023 and DreamLeague Season 20. Unfortunately for GG, they were unable to overcome Team Spirit at The International 2023 and were defeated in an unceremonious 0:3 loss. Team Spirit became the world champions for 2023 and helped the discipline of Dota 2 achieve its highest peak viewership of the entire year.

In terms of total viewership for the entire year, League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang dominated peak viewership for 2023. Matches from Worlds 2023 became some of the most popular content of the entire year, although events from ML:BB featured more heavily lower down the ranking than any other discipline. 

Disciplines such as Counter-Strike and Dota 2 hosted some of their most popular matches of the year at the discipline’s most prestigious events of the year, but they were unable to reach further heights than their disciplines had achieved in previous years. The teams behind the action, were as always, one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. 

Without T1’s worldwide popularity, it is unlikely that the League of Legends 2023 World Championship would have reached the same high peak viewership, and if an Indonesian team had not qualified for the M5 World Championship Grand Final it would be unlikely that the discipline would have broken 5M Peak Viewers at all. The esports teams competing in these events remain a critical part of how esports viewership is drawn in, and without these teams the events would be far less likely to achieve the same peak viewership which they did this year.