The event, which took place in South Korea, had a high concurrent viewership total of 6.4 million and an average viewership figure of roughly 1.3 million for its 116-hour air period – not including Chinese viewers.
Notably, the League of Legends season finale outperformed the previous record-holder, the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore, by approximately 1 million peak views.
The World Finals between Chinese esports organization Weibo Gaming and South Korean powerhouse T1 were the tournament’s most popular matchup. The latter eventually won the event, capturing its fourth global title.
T1 was the most popular esports organization throughout the event, according to Esports Charts, with the most hours seen (45.5m) and average viewers (3m).
In the last seven days, the official Chinese Huya channel for League of Legends esports reached a top ‘Heat’ index of 144.2m. Because various factors determine Heat in addition to viewing, this does not directly reflect genuine viewership figures in the country.
In addition to breaking the peak viewership record, the 2023 League of Legends World Championship smashed several language broadcast records, according to Esports Charts. The event became the highest-watched esports competition in Korean (2 million), English (1.7 million), and Vietnamese (805,000) broadcasts. Furthermore, the event had a substantially higher average audience than last year’s World Championship, with nearly 1.3 million viewers compared to 987,000 in 2022.
Riot Games recently announced that the World Championship Finals will be held in the O2 Arena in London, England, next year. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024 will also be placed in the country’s capital next year.
Due to the difficulty of measuring this data, Esports Charts does not provide Chinese audience statistics on its platform.
However, League of Legends is a hugely popular game in China, which has its own franchised league with Korea, EMEA, North America, Brazil, and Japan. A Chinese team in the Grand Finals will almost certainly increase viewership.
