Worlds 2023 breaks 1M peak concurrent viewers on first day of Play-In
The League of Legends 2023 World Championship officially kicked off on the 10th of October with the first day of the Play-In stage. Over 1,000,000 fans tuned in concurrently to watch the first day of the event, but viewership seems low compared to the previous year. Find out not only how the viewership of the first day of Worlds 2023 stacked up to last year, but what external factors affected this viewership.
The Play-In stage of Worlds 2023 will continue from today until the 15th of October, and the second stage begins on the 19th of October. Esports Charts will continue to cover the viewership and statistics for this year’s Worlds event as it progresses, so keep an eye on our News page and socials for all the updates on the event.
Worlds 2023 Play-In Day 1
The Play-In stage of Worlds 2023 allows 8 teams from all corners of the world to compete for two final spots in the next Worlds stages. The first day of the event saw CBLOL Split 2 Champion LOUD face off against the VCS Dusk Champion GAM Esports, and Movistar R7 compete against PSG Talon, the LLA Closing Champion and PCS Summer Champion teams, respectively.
Fans could hardly wait for the event to get going, and the first match between PSG Talon and Movistar R7 saw a peak concurrent viewers figure of over 750K, just an hour after the broadcasts started. However, GAM Esports against LOUD was the most popular match of the day, and a figure of 1M PV was reached less than four hours into the Play-In stage.
In total, the event accumulated just less than 3M hours of watch time in the four hours it was live. The more than a million fans who tuned in concurrently for the game are representative of a new wave of viewership for League of Legends and Worlds, which might help Worlds 2023 become the most-watched esports event of the year. Across both matches that were held on the first day of the Play-In, over 705K Average Viewers were present throughout the broadcast.
GAM Esports were the second-most popular team in the VCS Dusk league this year, according to Average Viewers, and they brought their Vietnamese viewership with them. LOUD are also a hugely popular team in their respective region, and the name of LOUD is a well-known and fan-favourite esports brand for many Brazilians. As we saw in our look at League of Legends global viewership before Worlds, the VCS is one of the healthiest regions in League of Legends for viewership. If Worlds 2023 is to continue to grow and smash the records it set for itself last year, it will need to tap into these growing regions for its viewership.
Comparing the first day of this year’s Worlds event to last year’s, some fans may come away with the first impression that viewership is down for the Worlds 2023 event. However, the drop in viewership for this year’s event can be explained by the lower Airtime on the first day and a restructuring of how the Play-In stage functions.
In Worlds 2022, the Play-In stage featured 12 teams competing for 4 spots at the main event. To accommodate the 12 teams, they were split into two groups of 6 and competed in a Group Stage event, where the top seed from each group would advance directly into the main event. The remaining 3 teams of the top 4 from the groups competed in a Knockout Bracket for the remaining spots. This structure of the Group Stage into the Knockout Bracket is how the Play-In stage has been formatted since it was introduced to Worlds.
Coming into Worlds 2023, the Play-In stage was restructured to feature fewer teams, who will advance directly to an elimination bracket. This year, the 8 teams in the Play-In will compete through a double-elimination bracket, with 4 teams competing in Bracket A, and another 4 in Bracket B. This new format is likely intended to shorten the previously lengthy Play-In stage and bring higher stakes and excitement to all of the matches.
It’s too early to say what exact effects this new format will have on Worlds 2023 viewership, but the 2023 event featured only two matches, whereas in 2022 the first day of the Play-In stage hosted 9 separate matches. Despite the fewer matches having a direct effect on the Hours Watched of the event, the first-day Peak Viewers figure for Worlds 2023 is promising and shows the audience is indeed there.
Also important to note, the 2022 first-day peak was reached during a North America vs Europe clash, personified through Evil Geniuses and Fnatic. North American and European teams have historically drawn in huge viewership when they clash at Worlds, so it is even more impressive that a Vietnamese and Brazillian team were able to break the 1M PV barrier this year. As the Play-In stage progresses we will be able to draw more conclusions about the effects of the new format on the viewership for the event, so keep an eye out for more articles throughout the week.
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