Top esports events of September: T1 vs KT Rolster derby gets more viewers than The International 2024 final

September 2024 marked the most eventful month in esports history, with five different tournaments attracting over a million concurrent viewers at peak. Fans particularly focused on League of Legends, especially the matches in the Korean regional league, LCK, and the Play-In stage of the 2024 World Championship. Most popular esports events of September 2024 The most popular esports tournament in September was MPL Indonesia Season 14, which attracted over 2.26 million concurrent viewers during the match between RRQ Hoshi and Bigetron Alpha. Interestingly, the group stage hadn't even wrapped up yet, but it already surpassed the peak viewership of MPL Indonesia Season 13. The current season has a strong chance of becoming the most popular in MPL history, needing to exceed the peak of 2.38 million held by Season 10 for the past two years. In second place was the LCK Regional Finals 2024, which peaked at 1.82 million concurrent viewers during the match between T1 and KT Rolster. This was a pivotal game not only for the league but also for many League of Legends fans worldwide, as it determined whether T1 would defend their title at Worlds 2024. Read also: LCK Summer 2024 becomes second most popular event in series despite T1's exit LCK Summer 2024 secured a spot in the top three thanks to the final match between Gen.G and Hanwha Life Esports. This series drew over 1.62 million viewers, and fans had a lot to cheer for as HLE became champions of their domestic league for the first time in history. In fourth place is The International 2024, the premier tournament of the season for professional Dota 2. The most popular match was the grand final between Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid, where Team Liquid took the victory with a 3-0 sweep. This decisive match attracted up to 1.52 million concurrent viewers. Read also: The International 2024 recap — challenges and successes of the year’s key Dota 2 event Rounding out the top five is the 2024 World Championship, the main tournament of the season for League of Legends. The Play-In stage, held in September, attracted over 1.43 million concurrent viewers, setting a new record for viewership at this stage in any World Championship. A big part of this success came from streams by Baiano and the enthusiastic Brazilian fans who tuned in to see their team, paiN Gaming, advance to the Swiss Stage for the first time. Most popular esports events of September 2024 among English viewers The most popular tournament among English-speaking viewers was The International 2024, which isn’t surprising since the English-speaking demographic is crucial for Dota 2, and the grand final featured two European teams. The high ranking of the LCK Regional Finals 2024 is largely due to the intense interest from English-speaking audiences in the Korean derby. This highlights the fact that the LCK has a massive fanbase outside South Korea, and the league generates significant interest from international viewers, especially during high-stakes matchups like those between T1 and KT Rolster. Notably, British streamer Caedrel, a popular figure in the League of Legends community, played a big role in the English-language coverage of the LCK Regional Finals 2024, with his channel even surpassing the official LCK Twitch channel in peak viewership. The grand final of BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 peaked at over 418,000 concurrent viewers on English-language streams, marking the highest viewership in the history of the BLAST Premier series. The only time BLAST had more viewers was during the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. With its peak viewership, Fall Final 2024 became the fifth most-watched tournament of the year, following only PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 and the IEM tournaments in Cologne, Dallas, and Katowice. In the decisive match, G2 Esports faced off against Natus Vincere — two top teams known for their strong audience reach, especially in the English-speaking segment. The match was intense, featuring many exciting moments and comebacks, which undoubtedly drew in viewers. Read also: Snax storyline, NAVI vs G2 rivalry & top performers: key highlights of Fall Final 2024 The English-speaking audience for the FNCS 2024 Global Championship peaked at around 407,100 concurrent viewers, making it the best result in the past five years for any professional battle royale tournament from Epic Games. The last time such a large English-speaking audience gathered was during the major Twitch Rivals Creator Series: North America Kick-off, featuring top Twitch streamers. Rounding out the rankings is the 2024 World Championship, which attracted about 358,400 concurrent viewers on its English-language broadcasts in September. The biggest draw for English-speaking viewers was the series between MAD Lions KOI and PSG Talon, which determined a spot in the Swiss Stage. Interestingly, the Asian team PSG Talon averaged more English-speaking viewers during their Play-In matches than the American team 100 Thieves, a representative of the LCS. Most popular esports events of September 2024 among Vietnamese viewers Vietnamese viewers were also highly engaged with League of Legends tournaments in September. Thanks in large part to their enthusiasm, the 2024 World Championship recorded impressive statistics during the Play-In stage, with the official Vietnamese VCS channel leading in peak viewership on the tournament's opening day. Fans were particularly focused on the matches featuring local teams, GAM Esports and Vikings Esports. Among the most popular tournaments for Vietnamese audiences was Arena of Glory Winter 2024, an annual event for the mobile game Arena of Valor (the international equivalent of Honor of Kings). Essentially, AoG serves as a qualifier for the Arena of Valor International Championship, the largest tournament for the game outside of China. A highlight of Arena of Glory Winter 2024 in September was the matchup between Saigon Phantom and FPT x Flash, two of the strongest and most decorated teams in the Vietnamese league. Their match drew 407,800 viewers. LCK Summer 2024 peaked at nearly 340,000 Vietnamese viewers in September, making it one of the highest viewership numbers in the league's history. The only tournaments with more Vietnamese fans were the LCK Regional Finals 2024 and LCK Spring 2024. The Vietnamese audience is actively following matches in the Korean league, especially the performances of T1, which consistently leads in average viewership for Vietnamese broadcasts. Read also: New platforms and community casters helped PUBG Nations Cup 2024 become game's most popular tournament in five years Vietnamese was the dominant broadcast language for the PUBG Nations Cup 2024, which took place in Seoul. It actually outperformed Thai, English, and Korean combined in terms of audience reach, largely thanks to streams on YouTube, NimoTV, and TikTok. Notably, seven out of the ten most popular channels for the tournament were broadcasting in Vietnamese. It’s unfortunate that the Vietnamese team finished in fourth place; they clearly gained momentum throughout the tournament and might have challenged the leaders — South Korea and the United States — if they had a bit more luck in the final rounds. Most popular esports events of September 2024 among Twitch viewers While League of Legends dominates various rankings of the most popular esports tournaments, Twitch viewers are turning their attention to championships for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike. This clearly indicates which platforms are more favored for different games. The top three esports channels on Twitch featured two official channels for The International 2024: the Russian-language channel dota2ti_ru and the English-language channel dota2ti. Interestingly, they attracted roughly equal numbers of viewers, with their peaks occurring during the grand final series between Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid. In third place was Russian streamer Nix, who also covered The International 2024; his peak viewership came during the series between Tundra Esports and Gaimin Gladiators, which featured Russian players on both teams. The BLASTPremier channel took the fourth spot, reaching a peak of 243,000 viewers during the grand final of BLAST Fall Final 2024. This is currently the channel’s most popular broadcast of the year, with an overall record of 440,000 viewers during the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 final. Rounding out the rankings is the ESLcs channel. In September, its most popular stream was during the match between Natus Vincere and EternalFire in the final of ESL Pro League Season 20. It’s also worth noting that there was fierce competition for the fifth spot; streamer ibai attracted nearly the same viewership as ESLcs during the Play-In matches at the 2024 World Championships, as his team, MAD Lions KOI, was competing in that stage.

Top esports events of September: T1 vs KT Rolster derby gets more viewers than The International 2024 final

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