New group stage format significantly improves Worlds 2023 viewership
The Worlds 2023 Group Stage finished up with three matches on Sunday, October 30. KT Rolster eliminated Korean compatriots Dplus KIA and advanced to the Knockout Stage and both Fnatic and G2 Esports were eliminated by the Chinese rosters of Weibo Gaming and Bilibili Gaming, respectively.
With both Fnatic and G2 Esports eliminated in the final round, there are no longer any EMEA representatives competing at Worlds 2023. The Knockout Stage of the event consists of three Korean rosters, four Chinese teams, and the singular representative from North America, NRG.
The quarterfinals of the Knockout Stage begin this Thursday, November 2, but before then let’s take a look at how the viewership for Worlds 2023 performed in comparison to the previous year.
Worlds 2023 Group Stage Viewership
Worlds 2023 has experienced some of the most successful viewership throughout its Group Stage of any Worlds event to date. Critically, the Worlds 2023 event featured a new format and hosted a Swiss-style group event. The Swiss format resulted in fewer matches, 15 fewer than 2022’s Group Stage, and less broadcasting time. Despite the fewer hours broadcasted, the new Swiss Group Stage saw an increase in viewership for nearly every metric.
The match between T1 and Bilibili Gaming in Round 4 of the Group Stage was the most popular match of the main event so far, and it recorded 1.956M Peak Viewers. This peak was reached without the viewership of Chinese live-streaming platforms, as the data recorded by these sites can be unreliable.
Prior to the Worlds 2023 event, we analysed the worldwide viewership of League of Legends regional leagues. Although our analysis showed viewership was down in 2023, some regions, such as Vietnam, Europe, and Japan, experienced significant growth in 2023. These regions have become hugely important for the viewership of Worlds 2023, and are part of the reason why the event has recorded such a large boost in viewership.
Although English-language broadcasts recorded an 8.3% lower PV in 2023 than last year, both Korean and Vietnamese-language broadcasts recorded a PV figure over 100%+ higher than in 2022. A secondary effect of this large growth in Asian viewership can be seen in the platform peaks, where Twitch recorded a minor drop in PV but YouTube achieved a peak 138.9% higher than last year.
With 59.83M Hours Watched and over 1.1M Average Viewers during the Group Stage, Worlds 2023 has become one of the most-watched Worlds events ever. Almost every single year, the League of Legends World Championship smashes the records set by the previous year and continues to grow. The event is one of the biggest esports events of the year, and Worlds 2023 is on course to become the biggest event in esports live-streaming ever.
Comparison of Worlds 2023 to previous World Championships
Comparing all of the World Championship events in our database, the 2023 event is already more popular than both the 2016 and 2018 World Championships. Worlds 2023 fell just short of 2M PV, and it would have been the first ever Worlds event to reach this milestone during the Group Stage.
At Worlds 2022, the viewership increase between the most popular match of the Group Stage and the Grand Finals match was a 270% jump in PV. The viewership that will be received by Worlds 2023 in the Knockout Stage depends on a variety of factors, such as which team competes in the Final match, but using the 2022 Worlds event as a framework, we can roughly estimate that Worlds 2023 has the potential to receive over 7M+ PV during the Grand Finals match.
Celebrating Halloween, League of Legends fans can enjoy an Esports Charts PRO subscription for a reduced price. Use promocode WORLDS2023 to get 30% off on a PRO subscription, only until November 2.
Viewership from various languages reached new heights during 2023. Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, and Japanese all received significantly more viewership than the previous year. By depending on various regions from a global audience, Worlds 2023 may achieve the highest PV recorded by an esports event ever.
The viewership for the Knockout stage of Worlds 2023 will heavily depend on which teams advance through the tournament. If T1 is eliminated early, this spells bad news for the event, as the Korean roster is one of the most popular teams in esports and consistently receives high viewership.
Judging the performance of teams during the Group Stage, it is a possibility that an all-Chinese Grand Final could top off the Worlds 2023 event. If two Chinese rosters, such as JD Gaming and LNG Esports, compete in the Grand Final, this may be detrimental to the event’s viewership potential.
The Knockout Stage of Worlds 2023 will begin later this week, keep up to date on the event’s schedule and the viewership statistics of the event with the statistics and information of the Esports Charts database.
Detailed Esports data at your fingertips.
Subscribe to & start exploring!
