Since it’s the beginning of a new month, it’s that time when Esports Charts analyses all the esports events from March and sees which attracted the most viewers. It was a Valorant competition that came out on top from among the worldwide and local events, even beating out a legendary mobile game. There are some pretty big names that popped up, so without further ado, here are the most popular tournaments from last month.
Topping this list is the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo, which set quite the benchmark for viewership for the entire industry for this year. It recorded 1.44M Peak Viewers from the Grand Final match between Fnatic and LOUD, two of the most popular teams in this event in terms of Hours Watched and Average Viewers. Most impressively, it is the second most popular Valorant competition in history, just behind the Valorant Champions 2022, which did just above 1.5M PV.
In second place was the MPL Indonesia Season 11, which notched 1.28 million PV, achieved during the Week 5, Day 1 clash between Rex Regum Qeon and ONIC Esports. It marked the game’s continued appearance in the top two of this list in 2023, but the fact that an MLBB Premier League event attracted lesser concurrent viewers than a Valorant event is pretty surprising. However, the latter got these numbers towards its end, so there’s a chance the MPL show will end with higher numbers after its final match on Sunday.
The LCK Spring 2023 was third, registering 1.07M PV for the Upper Bracket Semifinals between KT Rolster and T1. The latter is the most popular team and has appeared in all the five most-watched matches at this League of Legends competition. T1 has also reached the Grand Final, where it awaits the winner of the Lower Bracket Final between KT Rolster and Gen.G Esports, so there could be a change in viewership numbers, especially if the former reaches the April 9 summit clash.
A CS:GO tournament was in the top five for a third straight month, as the ESL Pro League Season 17 did 527K PV for the Grand Final clash between FaZe Clan and Cloud9. The new format, increase in the number of participants, and change in the list of platforms for broadcasting saw a negligible effect on the viewership numbers. However, with FaZe Clan being one of the two most popular sides, the right side arguably won.
Rounding off the top five was The Lima Major 2023, a Dota event, which reached 491K PV for the Grand Final between Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid. The fact that the two had also played the Upper Bracket Final, with the latter losing and then winning the Lower Bracket Final to reach the summit clash and avenge their loss, was a big part of this story. Interestingly, none of these sides were among the two most popular teams in terms of HW or AV, although they did make the top five in both metrics.
Coming to English-only viewers, the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo again topped the list, with 495K PV for Fnatic versus LOUD Grand Final. Overall, Portuguese was the most popular language, edging out English 37.5% to 34.3% in the overall viewership pie.
Surprisingly, the CDL 2023: Stage 3 Major was second with 329K PV from its Grand Final match-up between Toronto Ultra and OpTic Texas. This Call of Duty competition did record numbers, becoming the most-watched CDL event (by PV and HW) since its inception in 2020, including the former Call of Duty World League. Combined with the fact that it was a home team versus the neighbor summit clash, the event did better English concurrent viewership than more popular CS:GO and LoL tournaments.
The ESL Pro League Season 17 was third, with the FaZe Clan versus Cloud9 Grand Final raking in 327K PV. English was almost twice as popular as any other language for this league, so there is no surprise that it made this list as a top three entrant.
At number four, one of the two consecutive LoL events rounding off this top five, is the LCK Spring 2023, which notched 327K PV for KT Rolster versus T1. One positive is that English has slowly been catching up on the most popular language, Korean, over the last two splits, so it remains to be seen what the gap is at the end of this competition.
Last but not least is the LEC Spring 2023, which had 209K PV in English for the Week 3 Day 2 series between G2 Esports and Fnatic. This language has ever-so-slightly been pulling away from Spanish as the dominant one over the two splits this year, so the language stats will make for an intriguing read when this LoL tournament ends.
For a second straight month, the official ESL CS:GO channel is atop the list of most watched esports channels, thanks to the great response to the ESL Pro League Season 17, as it did 212K PV. It managed to overtake a more lucrative rival like VCT, which did reach a wider audience but had lesser peak viewership when comparing just their official broadcast channels.
Speaking of Valorant, the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo was second with a PV number of 211K. While the event had several records to its name, it could not go past its rival in the FPS shooter scene, and this head-to-head will be an interesting watch as more competitions begin in 2023.
Third was COD legend scump, who made this list for the second straight month thanks to his coverage of the Call of Duty League 2023: Stage 3 Major. He peaked at 176K PV for the Toronto versus Texas match, meaning the former pro easily beat out the official CDL Twitch channel’s numbers.
Next is tarik, who also made this list in February, with 174K PV for the LOUD and Fnatic meeting. The VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo has been a successful tournament for this CS:GO pro-turned-Valorant streamer over the last two months, and his loyal fanbase continues to keep him atop such charts.
In the fifth position is the official LCK Spring 2023 channel that registered 154K PV for the high-voltage game between KT Rolster and T1. Having missed out on this list last month, the handle triumphantly returned, thanks in no small part to the latter team, which appeared both times thee channel made the top five.
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