Despite what redditors, solo queue players, and boomers might tell you, League now has official confirmation - it's not a dead game. Within the last couple weeks, the esports viewership record has been broken multiple times from various Worlds 2019 series.
First, the SKT vs SPY series broke the record (previously set by the Fortnite World Cup) with 2.5 million peak viewers in their final game. The following SKT series (vs G2) then shattered that record, with 3.9 million at its peak. It seems like a good recipe for breaking viewership records is Worlds + SKT + EU team.
It is important to note that these numbers exclude Chinese viewership, as they are notoriously hard to properly source and confirm.
These numbers are also incredibly higher than last year's respective Worlds series. The peak viewership for the 2019 Quarters was roughly one million higher than 2018's peak, and averaged 600K more throughout. Then the Semifinals more than doubled the peak viewers and nearly doubled the average viewership as well. Professional League is doing great!
While it's likely that the trend continues with a higher viewership in the 2019 Finals compared to the 2018 Finals, it will be difficult to break the near four million peak viewers record set last week. The Korean audience showing up for SKT in both of those series will be much smaller without the LCK favorite. The Finals are more prestigious of course, but without a five game series, it seems unlikely.
Only time will tell, however, and to see more side by side viewership statistics, check out Inven Global's Data Lab. The Data Lab features statistics across all esports titles, as well as details on teams, their earnings, followings, etc. If you ever wanted to compare each esport side by side, you can do that there!
Explore the other fun tools on the Data Lab, too, and tune in for Worlds 2019 Finals this Sunday for an FPX vs G2 showdown. Do you think they can break the viewership record for the third week in a row? If not, when will the record be broken, and what esport will it be? Let us know your thoughts on our Twitter!
- Parkes Ousley
- Email : parkes@invenglobal.com
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