In this entry to our 2023 Esports Results series, we look at the top-performing esports organizations of the year in terms of generating viewership. This differs from our most watched esports teams piece, as that article divided each organization’s watch time by esports discipline, whereas this article is the sum watch time of every team underneath one organization.
Throughout our series of 2023 Esports Results articles, we have looked at the top-performing entities in a wide array of subsections. The top esports teams by viewership and the most popular esports matches of the year are just some of the topics we have looked over. Users can browse the entire collection of 2023 Esports Results articles with the associated tag.
Viewership for Battle Royale esports matches has been excluded from this ranking: calculating Hours Watched for BR events can be tricky as teams are constantly being eliminated from Rounds and jumping in and out of games. It is highly difficult to determine the actual amount of watch time each team received and although giving each competing team the same watch time is a possible solution, this is unfair towards the winning team who earned the most airtime. If you are curious about the top-performing Battle Royale esports of the year, we have a dedicated article for this.
Read also: Most Watched Battle Royale Esports Disciplines of 2023
Some of the most watched organizations of 2023 generated their watch time throughout one specific esports discipline where they are highly popular, whereas others have their fingers in many different esports titles: a diversified source of viewership. Without further ado, let’s look at the first organization of the ranking.
#10 - Gen.G Esports (77M Hours Watched)
Gen.G Esports is a Korean esports organization established in 2017. Although Gen.G are most well-known for their League of Legends team, they have teams in a wide collection of esports disciplines under their banner. Nevertheless, their League of Legends team is undoubtedly their most popular roster and generated a significant majority of their watch time in 2023.
In total, Gen.G Esports generated 77.02M Hours Watched throughout 2023, a significant increase from their watch time in 2022. In our 2022 most watched esports organizations article, Gen.G did not even rank within the top 10. A mixture of the growing popularity of the yearly World Championship tournament in League of Legends and Gen.G competing in more matches in 2023 marked a significant increase in the viewership of their League of Legends team this year.
#9 - Fnatic (77M Hours Watched)
In 9th place in our ranking, Fnatic garnered 77.28M Hours Watched in 2023. Fnatic is an esports organization based out of the UK and is quickly approaching two decades of experience in the esports industry. Although Fnatic’s Valorant roster had a wildly successful 2023, winning two of three major international tournaments, the esports organization actually dropped places in our rankings.
In 2022, Fnatic ranked as the 7th most watched esports organization according to our rankings, even moving up a place compared to 2021. Despite Fnatic’s Valorant team becoming the most-watched team under the orange banner in 2023 and increasing their watch time significantly, other esports teams under Fnatic struggled. Their League of Legends team lost considerable viewership compared to 2022, but most importantly, Fnatic withdrew entirely from the Dota 2 scene.
Read also: Most watched esports organizations of 2022
Fnatic’s departure from Dota 2 has been described as only temporary by the organization, but their departure roughly cost them 15M Hours Watched, which is what their Dota 2 roster garnered in 2022.
#8 - Evil Geniuses (79M Hours Watched)
Another esports organization to leave an esports discipline in 2023, Evil Geniuses ranked 8th with 78.83M Hours Watched. League of Legends was the most watched Evil Geniuses roster in 2022, but in 2023, the team failed to reach success on a regional level in the LCS and ultimately failed to qualify for Worlds 2023. At the end of 2023, Evil Geniuses officially withdrew from the LCS, alongside competitor Golden Guardians.
The EG League of Legends team fell from being the organization’s most watched team in 2022 to contributing only 6.5% to their total watch time in 2023. However, Evil Geniuses did not appear in our most watched esports organizations of 2022 piece, so what changed?
In 2023, Evil Geniuses brought a brand new Valorant roster to the table. Although the team suffered poor international results and was not even the top Americas team at the beginning of the season, they showed potential coming into the second half of the 2023 VCT season and ultimately became world champions at the VALORANT Champions 2023 event. Their Valorant team became their most watched roster of the year and marked an 1100%+ increase in watch time compared to 2022.
Evil Geniuses decided to release their championship-winning Valorant roster at the end of 2023, giving up the massive brand exposure this team allowed them. EG is reportedly fielding a new team in the 2024 VCT season, although it will be difficult for this team to fill the shoes left behind by their 2023 team.
Evil Geniuses also relocated their Dota 2 operations to South America for 2023. Although the team has struggled to put up good results in the latter half of 2023, they have maintained regional success in the South American leagues and generated a significant amount of watch time through these events.
#7 - Blacklist International (83M Hours Watched)
Moving to the other side of the globe and esports, Blacklist International are next up on our ranking with 83.03M Hours Watched generated. Blacklist International are a Philippines-based esports organization competing mainly in mobile gaming esports. They operate in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Call of Duty: Mobile, but they also expanded to Dota 2 in 2023.
This is the first time Blacklist International has appeared within the top 10 esports organizations of the year, and it is overwhelmingly thanks to their ML:BB team. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was the most watched mobile gaming esports discipline of 2023 and generated over 530M Hours Watched throughout the year. Organizations fielding teams at the highest level of ML:BB inevitably generate a large portion of their viewership from this discipline.
Read also: Top Mobile Gaming Esports of 2023
Throughout 2022, Blacklist International’s ML:BB roster achieved regional success in the MPL Phillippines events, but in 2023 they began competing at more and more events. They attended various international tournaments throughout the year, and even placed 2nd at the M4 World Championship and 3rd at the M5 World Championship, both of which took place in 2023.
#6 - AURA Esports (84M Hours Watched)
AURA Esports is an organization founded in 2018 and appears within this top 10 ranking for the first time. Interestingly, AURA Esports is one of the rare organizations whose name does not match with the name of their most popular team: ECHO. AURA Esports generated 83.62M Hours Watched in 2023, and this was largely thanks to their 5 different teams competing within Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
The five ML:BB teams under the AURA Esports franchise are ECHO, AURA Fire, ECHO Proud, AURA Esports, and AURA Phoenix. ECHO is their Filipino ML:BB team, AURA Fire the Indonesian ML:BB team, ECHO Proud and AURA Esports are the respective academy teams, and AURA Phoenix was a foray into women’s esports for the organization.
ECHO is undoubtedly the most successful of these teams, both in terms of viewership and at esports tournaments. In 2023, ECHO were the victors of the MPL Philippines Season 11 league and the M4 World Champions, where they became world champions.
AURA Esports is an oddity on this ranking. Usually, when an esports organization is involved with a wildly popular esports discipline such as ML:BB or LoL, they generate a large majority of their watch time from this one discipline. This is true for AURA Esports, except their spread of 5 different teams within one discipline means they receive their viewership from a diverse source of tournaments and matches.
#5 - G2 Esports (101M Hours Watched)
Coming to the halfway point of our rankings, G2 Esports ranked 5th on this list with 100.99M Hours Watched. The esports organization based out of Berlin competes in a diverse range of disciplines: CS2, League of Legends, Rocket League, Hearthstone, Apex Legends, Valorant, Rainbow 6 Siege, and many more.
Although G2 Esports competes in so many disciplines, they garnered most of their watch time thanks to two games, League of Legends and CS2. G2 Esports has a wildly successful history in League of Legends; they have enjoyed success on an international level many times, finishing 2nd at the 2019 World Championship, and have won the regional LEC league 12 times, the most of any team in LEC history. Most recently, G2 Esports claimed their 12th LEC title at the LEC Season Finals 2023, and finished just outside of Playoffs contention at Worlds 2023.
Their CS2 roster is also hugely successful. They won two prestigious international events in 2023, IEM Cologne 2023 and IEM Katowice 2023, and are one of the most well-known brands in the Counter-Strike esports scene.
Although G2 Esports recorded only slightly fewer Hours Watched in 2023 compared to the previous year, they dropped two places in this ranking. Their watch time was enough to snag 3rd, the final podium place, in 2022’s rankings, but as esports has grown and more teams are earning large amounts of watch time they have been overshadowed slightly.
#4 - Team Liquid (115M Hours Watched)
Team Liquid is an esports organization based out of the Netherlands and has 14 years of experience in the esports industry. They host a wide variety of teams in 20 different esports disciplines, from shooters and card games to fighting games and MMOs.
Team Liquid ranked 2nd in our 2022 rankings, but, similarly to G2, they were simply overshadowed by other growing esports organizations, rather than losing watch time compared to the previous year. In 2021, Team Liquid was the most watched esports organization in the industry, thanks to the diverse range of teams and disciplines they compete within at the highest level.
Team Liquid’s Dota 2 roster is one of their most successful teams in terms of tournament results within its discipline and is the most watched esports team under the Team Liquid banner for 2023. In 2023, the Dota 2 Team Liquid roster achieved regional success in the Dota Pro Circuit and also looked competitive at larger international events. Although Team Liquid was unable to win any of the large international events in 2023, they finished 2nd at the Riyadh Masters 2023, The Bali Major 2023, ESL One Major Berlin 2023, DreamLeague Season 19, and The Lima Major 2023.
Finishing 2nd at so many international events is a tough pill to swallow for any esports team, but it is just as good as 1st place when it comes to generating viewership. Although Team Liquid was unable to become the champions of any international event in 2023, they still enjoyed the high viewership associated with Grand Final matches.
Team Liquid is the highest-ranking Western esports organization of this ranking, with the remaining podium places filled out by Asian esports organizations competing mainly in MOBA esports titles.
#3 - Rex Regum Qeon (123M Hours Watched)
Moving into the podium places of our 2023 rankings, Rex Regum Qeon is the first of the top 3 teams in this piece. RRQ mainly competes in mobile gaming esports disciplines like ML:BB and Free Fire, and they moved up to 3rd from 4th in the 2022 rankings. The Indonesian esports organization garnered 122.96 Hours Watched throughout the year, largely thanks to ML:BB.
Although 95.7% of the organization’s watch time comes from ML:BB, they do field teams in other disciplines. In 2022, RRQ fielded a Valorant roster for the first time and competed in the Challengers events for the Philippines. In 2023, RRQ moved up to the top-level VCT Pacific league and even attended the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo tournament. Their Valorant roster was largely responsible for the remaining 4.3% of watch time left.
The large majority of RRQ’s watch time comes from their ML:BB operations, and this is not the viewership of one singular team. In 2023, RRQ fielded 7 different teams within ML:BB, making them one of the most prolific esports organizations in mobile gaming.
RRQ has enjoyed regional and international success through their many years competing in ML:BB. They competed in the first-ever season of the MPL Indonesia, finishing 3rd in the league, and have since been champions in four separate MPL Indonesia seasons, and finished 2nd at the MLBB World Championship 2019.
In terms of 2023 esports successes, RRQ Hoshi finished 3rd at the M4 World Championship and their Upper Bracket Semi Final match against Blacklist International was the most popular match of the entire event, garnering 4.27M Peak Viewers.
#2 - ONIC Esports (129M Hours Watched)
ONIC Esports experienced a wildly successful 2023 for viewership, jumping up from 10th place in the 2022 rankings to the penultimate spot in this one. ONIC Esports generated almost 60M more Hours Watched in 2023 than the previous year, and they owe this growth to their ML:BB teams. In total, ONIC Esports collected 129.42M Hours Watched for the year.
Similarly to Rex Regum Qeon, ONIC Esports fields a wide variety of teams within ML:BB. Their most successful roster is the eponymous ONIC Esports team competing in ML:BB. The main ONIC Esports roster has 5 regional MPL Indonesia titles under their belt, and various victories at international events, such as the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup where they defeated Blacklist International.
ONIC Esports unequivocally owes its success to its main ONIC Esports ML:BB roster, which garnered 94% of the organization’s watch time in 2023. The remainder of their viewership came mainly from their other ML:BB teams; ML:BB was responsible for 99.9% of the organization’s watch time, although they did compete in Free Fire also. As mentioned above, Battle Royale matches are not included in these statistics, but Free Fire experimented with a new 4v4 format in 2023, like at the Free Fire Summer Clash.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s viewership potential is highlighted by the fact that ONIC Esports was able to become the second-most watched organization of the year, nearly entirely off of the success of their main ML:BB team. Keep an eye out for our upcoming most watched esports disciplines of 2023 to find out where ML:BB places in comparison to titles like League of Legends and Counter-Strike.
#1 - T1 (144M Hours Watched)
The most watched esports discipline of the year is once again T1. T1 competes in various esports disciplines, but their League of Legends team is the most popular and one of the most popular esports teams in the world. In total, T1 generated 143.6M Hours Watched in their esports matches through 2023.
T1’s League of Legends roster is the most successful LCK team in the league’s history, having won 10 total titles, some of which are from before the league was even known as the LCK. Faker began competing under the T1 banner with SK Telecom T1 in 2013 and is now celebrating over a decade of competition under the T1 banner. Faker is undoubtedly one of the most popular esports athletes in the world if not the singular most popular, and his combined popularity with T1’s success is what allows them to stay at the top of esports viewership.
T1’s League of Legends roster experienced a successful 2023, but not without their trials and tribulations. After finishing first in the main season of the LCK Spring 2023, they missed out on an 11th LCK title after losing to Gen.G in the LCK Spring 2023 Playoffs. Next up, the LCK Summer 2023 tournament brought issues for the roster, as Faker had to miss roughly a month of matches due to a wrist injury. Ultimately, they would finish the LCK 2023 Summer season in 5th, one of their worst results in years.
Things continued to look rocky for T1 at the Worlds 2023 event, where they lost their Round 2 match against Gen.G to finish the Swiss Stage with a 3-1 record and a tied 3rd place. Gen.G was knocked out of contention in a close Quarterfinals match against BiliBili Gaming, and Chinese teams looked like they were poised to dominate the playoffs of the event. T1 managed to defeat two of the top LPL teams, LNG Esports and JD Gaming, to proceed to the Finals against Weibo Gaming.
Ultimately, T1 brought their A-game to the Finals match and defeated Weibo Gaming in a swift 3-0 victory. The event was hugely popular, and became the most popular esports match in esports history with 6.4M Peak Viewers, even when Chinese live streaming platforms were excluded. T1 once again proved their popularity and dominance of the esports scene; without T1 featuring in the Worlds 2023 Finals match, it remained unlikely that the event would have set a new viewership record. Of the top 5 most popular games at Worlds 2023, three of them were T1’s playoffs games.
The most watched esports organizations of 2023
With that, our top 10 ranking of the most watched esports organizations of 2023 is complete. T1 retains their spot at the top of the esports industry and even garnered roughly 12.5M more Hours Watched compared to 2022. ONIC Esports moved up 7 rankings to become the second-most watched organization of the year, highlighting the viewership power of the ML:BB scene. If ML:BB’s growth continues, the most watched esports organizations of 2024 may be dominated by Indonesian and Filipino ML:BB organizations.
Some teams appeared on this ranking for the first time, such as AURA Esports, Blacklist International, Evil Geniuses, and Gen.G. However, where new teams appear older teams must have made space. FaZe Clan and DRX, who were two new additions to the 2022 rankings, are absent from the top organizations of 2023.
DRX experienced a Cinderella-story year in 2022; despite finishing middle-of-the-table during the LCK Summer and Spring splits they managed to finish 2nd at the LCK 2022 Regional Finals, before defeating T1 in the Finals at Worlds 2022 to claim their first-ever world championship for Korea. Despite the successes, DRX released their 2022 roster and rebuilt the team for the 2023 season, ultimately unable to achieve regional or international success throughout 2023. DRX failed to qualify for Worlds 2023; the League of Legends World Championship is instrumental to the watch time of every major international team in the discipline.
FaZe Clan is one of the most recognisable brands not only in esports but in gaming overall. The organization operates in many esports disciplines, and although their Rainbow 6 and Rocket League rosters lost significant viewership in 2023, their Counter-Strike team was largely the cause.
FaZe Clan’s CS2 roster did not see any drastic changes made to their lineup for 2023, but the team received roughly 15M fewer Hours Watched in 2023, accountable for most of FaZe Clan’s lost viewership in the year. FaZe still enjoyed success at international events like IEM Sydney 2023 and the BLAST Premier: World Final 2023, but 2022 was simply a more successful year for the team.
In 2022, FaZe won their first-ever Counter-Strike Major at the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, which also saw the team set a personal Peak Viewers record with 2.11M PV. In 2023, FaZe struggled to compete at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, and were knocked out of the Quarterfinals by Heroic. Their poor performance at the most watched Counter-Strike event of 2023 was a significant reason for their absence from this ranking.
Another team perhaps surprisingly absent from this ranking is NAVI. NAVI hosts teams in a variety of esports disciplines, but their Counter-Strike roster is by far the most popular of these. Their Counter-Strike team garnered 30M fewer Hours Watched in 2023 compared to 2022 for two main reasons.
Firstly, similarly to FaZe Clan, NAVI struggled to compete at the top international events of the year. They exited the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 without qualifying for the Playoffs bracket and they failed to win a single tournament they competed in throughout 2023. Ultimately, s1mple’s departure from the active roster also impacted their viewership.
S1mple left the roster as the Counter-Strike esports scene switched over the CS2, and NAVI struggled to generate the strong viewership they historically achieved. At the IEM Rio 2023 event, before s1mple's departure, NAVI achieved 3rd place and their Semifinal match was the most popular match of the entire event. They also ranked highly among popular teams by the Average Viewers metric.
Compared to the BLAST Premier: World Final 2023, where NAVI also finished 3rd, their Semifinal match was not the most popular match of the event and they comparatively struggled in the Average Viewers metric. In just a year, NAVI’s traditionally high viewership has seemingly suffered a significant blow as s1mple as left the roster.
In conclusion, T1 remain the most watched organization in all of esports, assisted by another world championship and Faker’s ever-present popularity. Esports organizations involved in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang ranked significantly higher in 2023 compared to previous years as the ML:BB esports sector continues to grow and reach new heights. If these trends continue, organizations involved in ML:BB will dominate the 2024 rankings. Keep an eye on all of the upcoming esports trends with Esports Charts and our data-driven objective view of the esports industry.
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