The most-watched esports events of Q3 2023

Esports has diversified into an eclectic combination of various games, regions, and platforms. By tracking the most popular and successful esports events for live-streaming viewership, we can keep track of the ever-changing most popular esports disciplines and which regions bring in the most viewership. Although traditional esports fans may be surprised to hear it, the most-watched event of Q3 was not a Counter-Strike major, not a League of Legends regional league, and neither the Apex Legends Championship nor the Rocket League World Championship. Most watched esports events of Q3 2023 #1 — MPL Indonesia Season 12 The most-watched esports event of Q3 2023 was the MPL Indonesia Season 12, a professional league for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang players. The mobile esports discipline is hugely popular, especially in Indonesia. ML:BB is so popular in the country that the MPL ID has its own dedicated studio in Jakarta, the Arena MPL studio. The season is known for carrying on for a while, and MPL ID Season 12 was live for over 224 hours Airtime. The event received 116.7M Hours Watched, but not all of these hours were collected during Q3. The event started in July but ended in mid-October, and as Q3 came to a close on September 30, the event had garnered 92.81M Hours Watched, more than enough to still rank it first here. MPL Indonesia on stage. Photo via ONE Esports #2 — Valorant Champions 2023 In second place behind the MPL was the Valorant Champions 2023 event. Champions is the ultimate event of the year in Valorant and brings the Champions Tour to its final stop. The tournament took place in Los Angeles and invited teams from all corners of the world. The Americas, EMEA, Pacific region, and China were all represented in the event, and the multinational composition of the event helped it to receive viewership from as many sources as possible. Although English was the most popular language of the event, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish-speaking audiences contributed over 20M+ hours of watch time. #3 — LCK Summer 2023 In contrast to the multinational audiences of Valorant, the LCK Summer 2023 managed third in this ranking, with a majority of its 43.75M Hours Watched coming directly from Korean audiences. The LCK is one of the most prestigious regional leagues in League of Legends, thanks to the region’s rich history in the discipline. The LCK is often one of the more-watched events in League of Legends, and it managed third despite a significant chunk of the event being hosted outside of Q3. The Summer region started early in June and achieved roughly 19M Hours Watched before the beginning of Q3. Similar to Worlds 2023, Korean, English, and Vietnamese were the most influential languages for this event. #4 — Riyadh Masters 2023 Moving down the rankings, the Riyadh Masters 2023 event for Dota 2 was the fourth-most-watched event. The Dota 2 event featured a massive $15M+ USD prize pool and enraptured fans; the Saudi Arabian Dota 2 event was more popular than the official Valve-sanctioned Major events in 2023. Alongside the success of Gamers8 in 2023, the Riyadh Masters 2023 proved that esports may have a future in the Middle East, especially with these large prize pools that are impossible to ignore.# High-tech stage for the Riyadh Masters 2023 event in Saudi Arabia. Photo via Gamers8GG on Twitter #5 — IEM Cologne 2023 Finally, the fifth-most-watched event of Q3 2023 was the IEM Cologne 2023 event. The CS:GO event was the third-most-watched Counter-Strike event of 2023 and with good reason. The event was rumoured to be one of the final CS:GO events before the release of CS2, and fans were excited to get in their final drops of CS:GO before the new release. The BLAST.tv Paris Major was boosted by the same phenomenon. Fans had heard this would be the final CS:GO Major event, and many wanted to be a part of this historical event. Excluding the Majors that IEM hosted, IEM Cologne 2023 was the second-most-watched IEM event in the history of the series. Most popular esports events in Q3 2023 In terms of the most popular by Peak Viewers events for the same period, some events here we have already looked at. The MPL Indonesia Season 12 reigns supreme both in watch time and peak viewership. The 12th season of the MPL ID was able to reach over 2.1M Peak Viewers, something no other esports event in Q3 2023 could manage. The LCK event and Valorant Champions traded places in comparison to the most-watched graphic, the Grand Final of the LCK Summer 2023 event reached 1.53M Peak Viewers. The Grand Final saw T1 and Gen.G face off against each other, both of which are hugely popular teams among fans. Although Gen.G was the victor at the event, T1 proved its supremacy in viewership and popularity. Of the top 5 most popular matches of the event, T1 featured in all of them, and T1 received almost double the watch time of the second-most-watched team, KT Rolster. T1’s popularity alone may have boosted the LCK to become the second most popular esports event of Q3 2023. Valorant Champions had to settle for third per peak concurrent viewership, having reached 1.29M Peak Viewers during the Grand Final between Paper Rex and Evil Geniuses. Community casters were critically important for the viewership of Valorant Champions 2023, and community streamer tarik reached 215K PV, a personal record for his channel. Mobile gaming esports events are quickly gaining popularity. Photo via Snapdragon PRO series In fourth and fifth place of this ranking were two new events: Snapdragon PRO Series Season 3 SEA - Challenge Finals and Arena of Valor Premier League 2023: two mobile-gaming esports events. The Snapdragon PRO series is a regional league for Southeast Asia for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The Season 3 finals of the event series were hugely popular, and the first ever Snapdragon PRO series event to reach over 1M+ PV. The Arena of Valor Premier League is an official Major series hosted by Garena, one of the game’s publishers. The event is one of the most popular events of the year for Arena of Valor, which is a growing mobile gaming esports discipline. The 974.6K Peak Viewers for the Final day of the event was not only the most popular AoV Premier League event but the most popular Arena of Valor esports event ever. With MPL Indonesia ranking first in both watch time and peak viewership, its clear that mobile gaming esports have quickly become just as popular if not more popular than traditional Western esports disciplines. Historical event series like the LCK and IEM events in Counter-Strike continue to bring in viewership, but with event series like Snapdragon PRO and Arena of Valor Premier League growing and setting new viewership records, the traditional esports events may soon be eclipsed.

The most-watched esports events of Q3 2023

Detailed Esports data at your fingertips.

Newsfeed

Read also

Esports Charts