League Of Legends Worlds 2015 Breaks Viewership Records

Latest League Of Legends World Championship was seen by more people than in any previous eSports event.

While some may bemoan, belittle and downright plug their ears about the relevance and popularity of eSports, it’s becoming more and more clear that a local and international audience for its major players is growing. Setting stage across multiple stages in a number of European countries throughout October 2015, the League of Legends 2015 World Championship was quite the spectacle to behold. It was certainly that to millions of fans, as LoL Esports reports on their website that over 36 million unique viewers watched the Final; a record-breaking number for any eSports event.

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That 36 million number beats League of Legends 2014’s Worlds event unique viewer count, which reached 27 million despite a harsh time zone brought on by host country South Korea. Some other interesting figures include 360 million hours of live eSports viewership from their audience, which very much tops the 194 million hours watched in 2014. Average concurrent viewership reached 4.2 million, with the average fan watching “well over an hour” per session. Peak concurrent viewership reached 14 million people watching League of Legends at the same time (!), surpassing last year’s 11 million peak.

It was a perfect storm of opportunity for Riot Games, leading to the success of this year’s League of Legends World Championship. Not only is there a blossoming audience throughout France, Germany et al, but the start times led to a perfect compromise for viewers in both the West (United States, Canada, South America) and the East. It will be interesting to see where next year’s event will take place, and whether or not we will see significant viewership growth next year.