The Most Popular Esports Tournaments, December 2021

During the last month of 2021 there were several world championships in both PC and mobile disciplines: and there were several records set as well. In a new article Esports Charts will tell you about how PUBG Mobile topped the desktop version of the game, how many viewers the final event of the year in ML:BB attracted, and what other competitions drew the most attention from the audience in December.

Disclaimer: rating is based on Peak Viewers metric (maximum number of concurrent viewers during the broadcasts). Chinese streaming platforms stats are is not included.

Top events in December

The most watched esports event in December is the M3 World Championship — the third Mobile Legends: Bang Bang World Championship, the finals of which were held in Singapore. The tournament set a new discipline record: the playoff game between ONIC Philippines and RRQ Hoshi was watched by more than 3.19 million Peak Viewers — most of them were from Indonesia and the Philippines.

Also more than a million Peak Viewers watched the final event of the Valorant esports season. The decisive match of Valorant Champions 2021 between European team Acend and Gambit's Russian squad attracted 1.08 million Peak Viewers, which is also a new record for the game (the previous one was broken only by 4K spectators). It should be noted that the viewership of the event was strongly affected by the community casting.

In addition to ML:BB, the top 5 events of December included tournaments in two other mobile disciplines. In third place is Arena of Valor International Championship 2021, which final match attracted 879K Peak Viewers (AoV record). In fifth place is the PMGC 2021 online league for teams from Asia with 386K Peak Viewers. Note that it's way more than the stats of PUBG Global Championship: final event in PUBG season only reached 189K Peak Viewers.

Among the PC disciplines, the decisive event of the CS:GO BLAST Premier series is also in the top spot. More than 727K Peak Viewers followed NAVI's victory over Gambit in the final.

What was of interest to the English-speaking audience?

Valorant Champions 2021 became the most popular tournament among English-speaking viewers in December. Final of the tournament peaked 600K spectators: it's almost 150% more than maximum audience of BLAST Premier World Final which is ranked 3rd by the language.

Also a large audience was gathered by the first offline major Halo Infinite tournament in the legendary HCS series, which has been revived after almost three years of hiatus. During the decisive Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021 playoffs, 267K Peak Viewers followed the matches: it looks like the Call of Duty League got a new competitor.

The first RLCS Fall Split Major 2021-22, held in Sweden, was also a success with the audience. The best world teams once again played in a single competition, and the final match between the European team BDS and the Americans from The General NRG attracted up to 247K Peak Viewers on English-language broadcasts. This is the best result among all the majors in the discipline.

What did Russian-speaking viewers watch?

The CIS audience remains the same: CS:GO and Dota 2 tournaments are at the top, as always. First place went to the BLAST Premier World Final 2021, where NAVI vs Gambit match drew more than 337K Peak Viewers on Ru-broadcasts.

The OGA Dota PIT Season 5 is also in the top. The final between current TI winners Team Spirit and Tundra Esports was watched by 115K Peak Viewers. DPC Leagues 2021-2022 for Eastern and Western Europe ranked 3rd-4th, and the top 5 is rounded out by the IEM Season XVI Winter, where the biggest audience on Ru-broadcasts was reached during the quarterfinal between Gambit and Vitality.

What was popular on Twitch?

The list of the most popular esports Twitch channels in December featured English-speaking channels that broadcast Valorant Champions, RLCS Fall Split Major, BLAST Premier World Final and HCS Kickoff Major. The biggest number of viewers was gathered by the official Valorant channel: 344K Peak Viewers during the final of the world championship.

Interestingly, the second place went to WePlay studio that covered the final event of BLAST Premier 2021 for Russian-speaking viewers. The decisive match of the tournament reached 223K Peak Viewers.

Want to analyze tournaments yourself? Take advantage of our PRO subscription. For in-depth analysis and comparison of tournaments by team, language, and platform, you will need access to the Esports Charts Dashboard, which can be purchased from our sales team.