December is a month known for its high-profile year-ending tournaments, and 2024 was no exception. Mobile esports events dominated audience interest, alongside the historic first-ever Counter-Strike Major held in China and a sponsored off-season tournament in another major title that set a record as the largest gaming event ever hosted by Red Bull.
The standout event of late 2024 was the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) M6 World Championship, the ultimate showdown of the year in mobile MOBA. Hosted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the tournament brought together elite teams from across the globe. However, the spotlight was firmly on the rivalry between two esports powerhouses: Indonesia and the Philippines. The thrilling final between Fnatic ONIC PH and Team Liquid ID drew over 4.1 million concurrent viewers at its peak, more than three times the audience of the next most-watched event.
The M-Series tournaments remain a magnet for MLBB fans, consistently drawing massive audiences. However, the series has gone two years without breaking its concurrent viewership record. Instead, the latest event reached a new pinnacle of success by setting a remarkable milestone: it now holds the record for the highest total watch time in the series' history.
The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 stood out as the most-watched event among PC titles at the end of the year. Despite being held in China (where time zone differences often limit viewership from Europe and North America), the tournament exceeded expectations. The Grand Final showdown between Team Spirit and FaZe Clan drew an impressive 1.3 million peak viewers, a notable feat under such circumstances.
The year-ending event for one of the leading battle royale games, PUBG Mobile, rounded out the top three. The PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2024 (PMGC) fell just short of crossing the 1 million concurrent viewers mark. However, even with 985,000+ peak concurrent viewers, the event was still a milestone for the franchise as PMGC 2024 became the most-watched PUBG Mobile event since 2021 and the fifth most-viewed in the title's competitive history.
Adding to the drama, the excitement of the final rounds was fueled by a fierce rivalry between South Korea's Dplus and Turkey's Regnum Carya Bra Esports, with Dplus narrowly clinching victory by a single point.
Arena of Valor also delivered a solid performance with over 762,000 concurrent viewers at its peak. Garena’s AIC 2024 brought together the season's top teams from Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. The most-watched match was the Grand Final between arguably the best Thai team, Bacon Time, and the rising Taiwanese esports squad, BanMei Gaming. Unfortunately, the final was one-sided, ending in a 4:0 sweep in favour of BT, which dampened the overall excitement. Had the series been more competitive, the tournament could have potentially drawn even stronger viewership numbers.
Rounding out the top five was Red Bull’s League of Its Own, a hybrid esports-entertainment event that combined professional teams and streamer squads in a fun, competitive format. This year’s lineup featured two prominent French organizations (Karmine Corp and Gentle Mates), a fan-favorite streamer team from Germany NNO Old, Robert "Caedrel" Lamont's new squad Los Ratones, G2 Esports, and, as the crown jewel, back-to-back world champions T1.
The event took place shortly after the World Championship, adding extra excitement to the matches. The highlight was the showdown between T1 and Los Ratones, which attracted over 612,000 concurrent viewers, a number surpassed only by Red Bull’s Batalla music events.
In December, English-speaking esports viewers were primarily focused on Counter-Strike and League of Legends, with the M6 final also appealing to these fans. However, unlike the global audience, English-speaking viewers showed particular interest in esports football, particularly the FC Pro 25 Open, the main EA Sports FC tournament of the winter season. They also showed interest in the FIFAe World Cup, which this year was hosted in eFootball. Both events peaked at over 200,000 concurrent English-speaking viewers.
Twitch has traditionally been the domain of PC/desktop games, so it’s no surprise that three of the top five esports channels were covering the Shanghai Major (with only one being official), alongside Caedrel, who managed to capture the hype surrounding his team's showdown against the reigning LoL World Champions, T1.
The official EA Sports FC Twitch channel also garnered strong engagement with its broadcasts of the FC Pro 25 Open. Along with the thrilling matches, the opportunity to earn in-game rewards played a significant role in attracting additional viewers to the streams, a trend that typically boosts viewership.
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