NOTE: Around 6 hours after posting this article, Inven Global staff became aware of a large error that caused Uzi's stream numbers to mistakenly be viewed as 8.5 million. In reality, the number the author of this article highlighted for the sake of discussion (taken from Huya.tv) does not represent the number of simultaneous viewers.

In fact, it represents a "points" system that native users of the streaming service understand well. It is a metric to score a streams popularity -- it is NOT the number of viewers.

The article below has been unchanged from its original form. We apologize for this mistake that caused our reporting to be incorrect and will be taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.

-Nick D'Orazio, Managing Editor.

2018 so far really is turning to be Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao’s: well known for his infamous title drought, the Chinese superstar won straightaway two major titles in the span of 3 weeks, taking home both the LPL Spring Split and the Mid-Season Invitational trophies, with the latter reportedly drawing over127 million viewers for the Grand Final, won by Uzi’s Royal Never Give Up with a 3-1 score against Korean powerhouse KingZone DragonX, which would make it easily the most watched esports event in history.

Claimed by many as the best player in the world right now, RNG’s victory against the favorited Koreans led many Chinese fans to ecstasy, with the series being one of the most discussed topics on Weibo, one of China’s most popular social networks. And such wave of enthusiasm was verified once again, with Uzi apparently breaking yet another record: while streaming today (May 28), he reached the absurd mark of 8.5 million concurrent viewers, something absolutely imaginable so far.

To put things in perspective: the individual streamer holding the record for most simultaneous viewers on twitch.tv is Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, with 667.000 people tuning it to see the star playing during a Fortnite tournament in Las Vegas. An impressive number, but yet almost 13 times smaller than the mark Uzi managed to reach today.

The Chinese ADC streams on Huya.tv, one of China’s three biggest streaming websites. During today’s stream, he plays mostly ranked matches, but he also had time to jump in some ARAM action while trying to interact with the – literally – millions of viewers.

Yes, it is alleged that Chinese streaming viewership numbers are largely inflated by all streaming websites, while seeking to enhance their numbers artificially in order to hold a bigger control of China’s enormous streaming and gaming market, but nonetheless, Uzi’s mark of 8.5 million viewers is just out of this world – which perfectly suits the best ADC professional League of Legends has ever seen.

Photo courtesy of Riot Games

Screenshot courtesy of Maisesports