Development of LoL Worlds viewership numbers from 2016 to 2024

Since the start of the Worlds series for League of Legends In 2016, the tournament's viewership has steadily increased, expanding the boundaries of esports broadcasting. While the event's viewership previously came almost entirely from official broadcasts, this has shifted since the integration of co-casters in 2023. Esports Charts shows what the official viewership numbers are for the event Worlds Series has developed particularly in recent years.

From the 2016 edition of the World Cup to 2021, viewership of the series increased year after year. The last year of this steady growth benefited from alignment during the pandemic, when both the esports broadcast and live streaming industries experienced huge increases in viewership. The 2021 World Cup recorded the second-highest average viewership of any World Cup event, trailing only the ongoing 2024 World Cup, which saw its overall viewing time reduced by a reduction in broadcast time.

Annual watch time dynamics for League of Legends Worlds

2019 stood out from other previous years as 10% of the 137.01 million hours viewed came from co-casters. This co-casting audience represents almost exclusively Korean viewers who supported community casters on both Twitch and SOOP Korea (then known as AfreecaTV). With the exception of 2019, no other World Cup event benefited from significant co-casting viewership before 2023.

Heading into Worlds 2023, Riot Games has reinvigorated the co-casting scene, naming official co-streaming partners and selecting some of the most popular global League of Legends esports streamers. While this new wave of co-hosts has helped the event continue to grow its viewership in a post-pandemic landscape, it has had a visibly negative impact on viewership of official broadcasts. Interestingly, this negative effect was regionally limited and did not affect all of the World Cup's key target groups.

For example, In 2023, viewership for select Asian viewers increased significantly, while European languages ​​suffered, seeing significant declines in overall viewership, with these new co-casters seemingly destabilizing Worlds' viewership. We'll cover this topic later as we focus on the year-over-year dynamics and trends of recent years.

Although the grand final of the 2024 World Cup has not yet been played, it has already established itself as one of the most watched editions of the event. Co-casting for the series has increased significantly in 2024 and now accounts for almost half of the event's total viewership. Official broadcast audience numbers continue to fall, but previously negatively affected European languages ​​have recovered and are recording viewership levels at levels of their previous peaks in 2022.

Audience dynamics for coverage of the World Cup on riotgames' official Twitch channel

The official English language Riot games The Twitch channel has always been the most-watched broadcast option for League of Legends fans at Worlds. As a precursor to the official broadcasts, this channel is an ideal candidate to see how much of an impact the new co-casting system has had on these official streams.

While the Riotgames channel saw an increase in viewership every year prior to 2023, the emergence of co-casters has significantly reduced this channel's popularity.
When co-casting was integrated into the Worlds broadcast in 2023, Riotgames channel viewership fell by 56%; Although the 2024 World Cup is not over yet, it is extremely likely that 2024 will see a further decline in viewership for this channel.

The official YouTube broadcasts like LoL Esports were not affected as drastically as their Twitch counterparts. Viewership of this official English-language broadcast on YouTube has generally stabilized since 2020, and in 2023 the channel reached an impressive peak in viewership, but saw record-breaking watch time for the event overall.

Insights and Highlights of the Dynamics of Worlds, 2020-2024

If we take a closer look at the last few years of Worlds, 2021 was hugely popular thanks to the growing regional audience, which was also able to support Worlds more thanks to the lockdowns. The Spanish and Portuguese-speaking, mainly Brazilian, audience grew significantly in 2021 Spanish streams see over 175% increase in watch time.

Viewership for the 2022 World Cup fell by 18.8% compared to last year, mainly due to two reasons. First, the pandemic-induced boost for esports broadcasts was fading, and viewership would inevitably decline compared to the widely watched 2021 edition. Second, the tournament took place in Mexico, with games starting before sunrise in some Asian countries. Although there were many viewers from European languages ​​in 2022, Korean viewership was halved compared to 2021and other strong Asian audiences such as Vietnamese also suffered.

Given what we've looked at so far, there are some crucial keys to Worlds' ever-changing viewership. While co-casting may help LoL esports in the long run, it has had a major impact on viewership of official broadcasts and could mean that sponsors may need to recalibrate their understanding of Worlds viewership. The location and planning of the event are also crucial, with the 2022 World Cup proving a cautionary tale not to exclude popular Asian regions.

Even before the grand final of the 2024 World Cup, the event's viewership has increased by over 10% compared to 2023. The tournament's growth has been fueled by Vietnamese and Brazilian viewers, who represent two of the game's fastest-growing fan bases. Other historically popular languages ​​like Korean weren't as lucky this year, although that audience was still able to reach millions of concurrent viewers to support their compatriots T1 in the grand finale.

The Worlds 2024 grand final begins at 2:00 p.m. GMT on Saturday, November 2nd. The event could well be one of the most popular Worlds of all time, and before the finals begin, Esports Charts will present our review of what factors could influence viewership. From historic finals viewership growth to the potential of language demographics, we'll cover all sides of League of Legends esports viewership.