League of Legends World Championship series reached 1 billion hours of watch time

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Following the ML:BB Professional League, the League of Legends World Championship has become the second event series to reach 1 billion hours of watch time in the Esports Charts database, which has been maintained since 2016. Worlds is routinely one of the most popular esports events of the year, and its journey has continued all the way to the top of the livestreaming industry.

The World Championship series fell just short of the MPL, with the LCK trailing both series closely. The LCK and MPL benefit from hosting multiple events a year, whereas the Worlds series has remained a yearly occurrence. In rough terms, the MPL has held eight times more events than the World Championship, and Worlds series only matches 12% of the MPL’s total broadcasting time.

Worlds is now the first PC or console esports event series to reach the 1B Hours Watched mark. The series is not the only watched League of Legends circuit, with many other regional leagues as well as the Mid-Season Invitational series ranking highly in our database too. 

Over the years, Worlds has evolved and constantly found new audiences to connect with. The game is truly one of the most global esports titles, with all corners of the world tuning in to the world championship matches.

Since its inauguration in 2011, the Worlds series has grown to become one of the most recognisable esports events on the planet. Worlds has been improving its viewership, and reaching new audiences ever since. Thus, the peak viewership reached by Korean audiences alone at last year’s Worlds was higher than the entire combined peak viewership of the 2016 iteration. 

Across the past years, League of Legends has grown substantially in a couple of major audiences. Firstly, Vietnamese fans have cemented themselves as a major audience for the esports title. 5 years ago, Vietnamese viewership was ahead of other languages but lagged significantly behind Korean and English ones. While the gap between these major audiences remains sizeable, Vietnamese audiences have proven they are one of League of Legends’ largest audiences, and are a critical part of the overall viewership enjoyed by the events. 

Spanish viewership also remains a strong force within League of Legends, as well as Portuguese and French. Brazilian fans are one of the fastest-growing regions within the League of Legends esports scene, and the Portuguese-language viewership has been up for Worlds, especially when a Brazilian team competes.

Also, Worlds has seen some brand-new audiences emerge, such as Japanese. Viewership from Japan for the Worlds series was lucky to reach a couple of ten thousand fans in the past, but in the last couple of years, Japanese fans have grown more interested in League of Legends, and viewership reached over 150K concurrent Japanese fans last year.

Ultimately, Worlds’ success depends on the overall success of League of Legends, as well as the game’s ability to appeal to global audiences from all corners of the world. Whether in Asia, South America, or Europe, MOBA fans across the world enjoy League of Legends, and gladly will watch one of the biggest gaming spectacles of the year. As the game continues its growth in Brazil, Vietnam, and other regional audiences, Worlds will likely continue to set new records for the esports industry again and again.