Worlds 2023 not only marked T1’s fourth championship title but also set the viewership record of becoming the most-watched esports event ever.

Photo Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Worlds 2023 reached a peak viewership of over 6 million people

The previous record for the highest peak Worlds viewership was already broken during the first game of the grand final with over 5.9 million concurrent viewers, according to Esports Charts. It was more than 400,000 viewers higher compared to the Worlds 2022 Grand Final, which also featured T1 (finals against DRX).

But the numbers didn’t stop there. For the first time ever, Worlds broke the 6 million barrier, reaching 6,402,760 peak viewers during Game 3. And considering that the numbers collected do not include Chinese viewers, the global audience for the LoL tournament is definitely going to be even higher.

This is a crucial milestone for LoL esports, as it beat the industry record set by the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore, an event watched by more than 5.4 million people simultaneously.

Average viewership has also gone up

The second most-watched series was the semifinal between T1 and JDG at 4.3 million. Third place was the series between T1 again against LNG, which peaked at a little over 3,000,000. Once again, it goes to show how important T1 is in terms of reach and viewership.

What’s also positive is the increase in average viewership with more than 1,260,000 viewers at all times. This is nearly 300,000 more compared to last year and close to the numbers achieved in 2021 (1,298,219). Thanks to the introduction of the Swiss stage, more high-stake matches were added that helped boost the average viewership, which was also confirmed by Riot Games themselves.

According to Esports Charts, the tournament also managed to set new peak numbers for the major broadcast languages. New records were set for one-time audiences in Korean (1.87 million Peak Viewers), English (1.64 million Peak Viewers), and Vietnamese (760.7K Peak Viewers), proving once again that esports is gaining more and more popularity.

With Worlds 2024 confirmed to take place in London, LoL will be riding that wave of enthusiasm as T1 looks to qualify and defend their title next year.

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