As part of our 2023 Esports Results series of articles, we have looked at every corner of the industry, and our PRO subscribers can enjoy additional more specific articles, such as the top esports tournaments among Korean and Brazillian viewers. Now, it’s time for an overview of the entire industry, and to solidify the top 5 most watched esports disciplines of 2023.
For this ranking, we collated the viewership of esports events for each individual discipline. Non-esports-related live streaming statistics for games are not included in this data, as only broadcasts of esports matches were considered. To be clear, this does not exclude competitive events hosted by the community, or smaller-scale tournaments for each discipline.
Most Watched Esports Disciplines of 2023
#5 Valorant (326.7M Hours Watched)
Valorant starts off our ranking in 5th place with 326.73M Hours Watched accumulated throughout the entire year. With the power of Riot Games behind it, the relatively new esports shooter has quickly established itself as a top choice for many fans around the globe. Valorant is settling into its franchised league system and viewership dynamics are static compared to 2022, but that does not mean the discipline is plateauing.
Prize pools are on the up for the discipline across the board, and Valorant is expanding into China in 2024 with a new franchised regional league. Valorant earned slightly fewer Hours Watched in 2023 compared to the previous year, a statistically insignificant amount, but where the discipline truly suffered in 2023 was its peak viewership. Valorant’s esports scene has become incredibly patriotic across the past couple of years, likely due to the regional franchising system. While this drives up viewership for certain regions where fans loyally support their favourite local team, it can have negative effects.
The Valorant Champions 2023 event was the ultimate event of the year’s competitive season and became the most watched event of the year within the discipline. However, the event faltered when it came to peak viewership, and it received fewer viewers at peak than the VCT 2023: LOCK//IN São Paulo event earlier in the year.
LOUD’s elimination from the Playoffs at the Champions event was one of the key reasons for the viewership decline. Portuguese-language broadcasts were an integral part of the viewership achieved by the Valorant Champions 2023 event, and when LOUD were eliminated, viewership dropped. The loyal support of fans for local franchised teams means that if these teams are not competing, viewership will suffer. This fact is something that Valorant’s esports scene will have to live with and learn to mitigate the effects, and only 2024 will tell if this can be managed.
#4 Dota 2 (364.1M Hours Watched)
In fourth place is Dota 2, the beloved MOBA title from Valve. Dota 2 generated 364.1M Hours Watched in 2023, marking a growth of over 60M+ HW compared to the previous year. The most watched event of the year was The International 2023, which actually received less viewership than the previous iteration of the world championship event. So, where did Dota 2’s growth come from?
As is the norm for the discipline, the Major events throughout the year contributed to a significant portion of Dota 2’s yearly esports watch time. However, third-party non-Major events were where Dota 2 found room to grow in 2023. The Riyadh Masters 2023 event received markedly more watch time than the previous iteration of the event, and with its $15.1M prize pool, the tournament became the third-most watched event of the year.
ESL’s DreamLeague events also contributed significantly towards the discipline’s watch time; the three seasons of DreamLeague (19 through 21) accumulated more than 50M Hours Watched during the year. Although these tournaments did not reach particularly high peak viewership, the length of league-style events allowed for event organisers to generate a considerable amount of watch time.
#3 Counter-Strike (381.2M Hours Watched)
Counter-Strike was the third-most watched esports discipline of the year, and the only esports discipline to span two separate games. The release of CS2 marks a new era for Counter-Strike, and it comes at just the right time.
Counter-Strike garnered 381.22M Hours Watched throughout the year, which marked a substantial drop in viewership for the shooter. Compared to 2022, Counter-Strike earned roughly 70M fewer Hours Watched during the year of Counter-Strike 2’s release. The release of the new title will hopefully revitalise the discipline and bring some excitement and growth to the game, and with Valve planning its first-ever Major event in China for 2024, there are big plans and hopes for the new Counter-Strike 2 esports scene.
Read also: Esports Events to Watch in 2024
Although a 70M drop in Hours Watched may seem dire for Counter-Strike, 2023 also only hosted 1 Major event, a rarity in the Counter-Strike scene. Generally, Counter-Strike is known for hosting two Major events each year, although the pandemic’s effect on esports seems to have disrupted this schedule. In 2022, both Major events, IEM Rio Major 2022 and the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, garnered roughly 69M Hours Watched each. A missing 2023 Major accounts almost exactly for the lost viewership.
However, it is also worth noting that the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 did not perform as strongly as past Majors, garnering only 58.89M Hours Watched, and the ESL Pro League events in 2023 (Season 17 and 18) garnered less watch time than their 2022 counterparts. Counter-Strike’s esports scene is not in a dire spot, but it did not grow in any significant manner throughout 2023. Viewership for events was generally either stable or declining, and Counter-Strike 2 may be the breath of fresh air Valve’s shooter needed to bring its esports scene back to life.
#2 Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (530.2M Hours Watched)
One esports scene that does not need any revitalisation is Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The mobile gaming esports sector is one of the fastest-growing sections of esports, and mobile gaming continues to break records, draw in huge viewership, and set new standards for the industry.
ML:BB earned 530.16M Hours Watched for its esports events in 2023, marking a 190M Hours Watched increase compared to the past year. ML:BB is consistently growing, with the most watched tournament of the year becoming the first-ever regional league to break 100M Hours Watched. The MPL Indonesia Season 12 earned 116.71M Hours Watched, showcasing the potential of the Indonesian mobile gaming esports audience.
ML:BB did benefit from hosting two World Championships in 2023; the M4 World Championship was hosted in January and the M5 World Championship in November and December. However, even when the viewership for these two events is added it does not account for the 190M Hours Watched growth enjoyed by the mobile gaming discipline in 2023. Critically, ML:BB was the only discipline in this top 5 to record fewer than 10K Hours of Airtime. ML:BB’s watch time comes from passionate audiences who contribute massive amounts of watch time, even without a bloated esports calendar.
Although Western fans may be slow to join the mobile gaming esports train, as can be seen in the performance of mobile gaming titles on Twitch and its viewership in esports among Western audiences, the era of mobile gaming is truly upon us. Each year the scene continues to grow, and at this pace, it may become the most watched esports discipline in the world in 2024.
#1 League of Legends (590.9M Hours Watched)
Finally, the most watched esports discipline of the year was League of Legends. The MOBA title generated 590.93M Hours Watched in 2023, significantly more than any other title in the esports scene. League of Legends set a new esports viewership record when 6.4M fans concurrently watched the Grand Final of Worlds 2023, and this event also became the most watched tournament of the year with 146.87M Hours Watched.
League of Legends experienced a transitional phase in 2023, with viewership growing for some regions, but also declining for many historically strong regions for the discipline. Vietnamese-speaking audiences became crucial for the viewership of the World Championship in 2023, and the Vietnamese regional league is one of the few regional leagues in League of Legends to have grown in 2023.
While some regions are experiencing strong growth, others are faltering. North America, EMEA, and Korea are just some of the regions to have seen drops in viewership during 2023, although Korean audiences came back strong to support T1 in the Worlds 2023 Final. Despite setting a new viewership record for esports in 2023, League of Legends generated almost 30M fewer Hours Watched compared to 2022.
While League of Legends can still enjoy its place at the top of esports for the moment, the competitive scene for the MOBA needs to go through some serious changes to continue to contest this top spot.
Read also: League of Legends esports changes for 2024 revealed
| Ranking | Discipline | Hours Watched | Peak Viewership |
|---|---|---|---|
|
#1 |
League of Legends |
590.91M |
6.4M |
|
#2 |
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang |
530.16M |
5.07M |
|
#3 |
Counter-Strike |
381.19M |
1.53M |
|
#4 |
Dota 2 |
363.92M |
1.44M |
|
#5 |
Valorant |
326.72M |
1.44M |
League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are currently the top two esports disciplines in the industry and by a significant margin. Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and Valorant all generate a considerable amount of viewership, but they lag behind the two legendary MOBA titles.
Both shooters in this ranking, Valorant and Counter-Strike, hosted significantly more events than their MOBA counterparts. All three MOBAs of this ranking saw under 200 esports events hosted during the 2023 calendar year. Valorant saw almost 500 events organised during 2023, and Counter-Strike’s esports scene was home to over 600 events in the year. The large number of events hosted in the esports scene contributes greatly to the watch time of these disciplines, although the viewership in these scenes remains relatively top-heavy.
While viewership for Dota 2 and Valorant was stable, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was the only esports discipline in this top 5 to enjoy significant growth in the year. The mobile gaming esports discipline is still realising its true potential, and this budding esports scene may quickly overtake the entire industry. It also managed this without the benefit of huge monetary prizes for teams to compete for. The M5 World Championship had 900K up for grabs, which is not a considerable amount in the era of modern esports. For example, Dota 2 had more than 6 times the amount of money in prize pools that ML:BB offered in 2023.
In the top 5 graphic, the peak viewership for 2023 of each esports discipline is also present. Let’s take a closer look at which matches were responsible for the peaks of each discipline for the year.
Of course, the most popular match of the year in League of Legends was the Grand Final of Worlds 2023 between Weibo Gaming and T1. The match set a record in esports thanks to the 6.4M fans who concurrently watched the match live, and Korean audiences were hugely instrumental in this achievement.
One fear for League of Legends is that T1 is almost outgrowing the esports discipline itself. Without the presence of T1 in this Grand Final, it remains unlikely that the event would have set an esports viewership record, or even have increased viewership compared to 2022. A similar worry came to reality for Valorant, where LOUD’s early departure from the Valorant Champions 2023 event meant the tournament could not rely on these Portuguese-speaking fans to contribute to the event's watch time at their full potential.
Valorant managed 1.44M Peak Viewers for the Grand Final of the Brazillian event early in the season, and the remainder of the 2023 competitive season was unable to match the hype this Final generated.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang reached over 5M concurrent viewers at the M5 World Championship, where the final between ONIC Esports and AP.Bren set the 2023 peak viewership for the mobile gaming discipline. This became the first ML:BB match to break the 5M PV barrier, and the floodgates are open. With ML:BB proving it can reach a similar peak viewership to League of Legends, all bets are off for which team can reach a higher peak in 2024.
For Counter-Strike and Dota 2, peak viewership in 2023 was relatively straightforward. Both disciplines reached their peaks at the most prestigious events of the year of their respective scene, although they both lost viewership compared to 2022. Counter-Strike suffered the bigger loss of the two, recording 600K fewer Peak Viewers than the PGL Major Antwerp 2022. Although these two disciplines did not reach new heights in 2023, they generated stable watch time and there is no reason to ring the alarm bells for either one just yet.
The top 5 esports disciplines of the year are finalised, and League of Legends paves the way for the esports scene for another year. The MOBA title continues to set viewership records and raise the bar for esports events, but its time may be coming to a close. ML:BB is still growing at a rapid rate, and if this trend continues it may very well be the most watched discipline in 2024.
Counter-Strike and Valorant are expanding into the Chinese market in 2024, and if they can create a foothold for themselves in this market, they may be able to continue to grow their scenes in the upcoming years. Keep an eye on esports trends with an objective view of the data with Esports Charts, as we continue to track tournaments, matches, and teams throughout 2024.
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