American video game developer Riot Games has announced that the League of Legends World Championships peaked at 44 million concurrent viewers. The matchup between European team G2 Esports and Chinese team FunPlus Phoenix saw the rise of a new champion, and it was viewed across over 20 platforms in 16 languages.
League of Legends viewership
The Finals stage reached a record 21.8 million average minute audience (AMA). Over 1 billion hours of content was consumed throughout the five weeks of competition, which consisted of 120 games in Berlin, Madrid, and Paris. In addition, the international tournament featured a more diverse in-game meta than any of the previous events, with 99 champions picked or banned. In comparison, 2018 had 90 champions, 2017 had 82 champions, and 2016 had 56 champions.
Champions like Kennen, Tahm Kench, and Ornn had the highest win rates, with 71.4% for the first two and 70% for the third. Many players also achieved notable records. Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther and Kim “Khan” Dong-ha tied for the most solo kills with 10 each. Others like FunPlus Phoenix player Liu “Crisp” Qing-Song had 213 assists. Cloud9 player Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi also dealt the highest damage per minute, with a grand total of 615.
2019 World Championships
While the World Championship is the most prestigious event in the League of Legends season, there are also many steps to get there. In 2019, over 60 unique events were hosted in 36 different cities across the world. These consisted of regional, challenger, national, and collegiate events, all of which helped contribute to the ecosystem.
The concurrent peak viewership remains the same as the corrected viewership number of the 2018 World Championships released by Riot Games. The average minute audience has increased by 11.2%, but no unique viewers statistic has been released.
Even though G2 Esports was the fan-favorite team, FunPlus Phoenix took home this year’s trophy. As such, the 2020 World Championships will be held in Shanghai.
