Battle royales exploded onto the scene in 2017 with the release of PUBG: Battlegrounds. The game was an instant hit and the battle royale genre has since permeated all corners of the esports and video game industry. From Asia to South America and PC to mobile. Battle royales are some of the most popular esports disciplines around the globe.
Note: The statistics presented in this article reflect the viewership of esports events for each title. Excluding those from Chinese live streaming platforms as the data from these platforms is unreliable. The data does not include viewership of personal live streaming broadcasts of each game.
#5 – PUBG: Battlegrounds (29.57M Hours Watched)
Kicking off our list is the game that started the battle royale cultural wave: PUBG: Battlegrounds. With just under 30M Hours Watched accumulated, PUBG: Battlegrounds was the fifth-most watched battle royale esports title of the year. It recorded slightly less watch time this year than in 2022. But the esports discipline also featured much fewer tournaments this year, meaning it received more watch time on average per tournament.
The most watched event of the year was the PUBG Global Championship 2023, the final event of the 2023 PGC competitive season. The event garnered 7.14M Hours Watched and took place in Bangkok, Thailand.
Although PUBG: Battlegrounds initially grew in popularity thanks to the Western live streaming industry, it has since carved out a market for itself in Southeast Asia. The most popular language of the PUBG Global Championship 2023 was Vietnamese. Many of the other top languages from the event are representative of this Southeast Asian popularity.
The peak viewership achieved by the PGC 2023 event was the highest concurrent viewership recorded by PUBG: Battlegrounds since 2019. The battle royale title has struggled with replacing the viewership it initially enjoyed thanks to its vitality in 2018. 2023 is another step in the right direction for the esports discipline of building viewership back up.
#4 – Free Fire (37.24M Hours Watched)
In fourth on our ranking is Free Fire, a free to play battle royale mobile game published by Garena. The title is the first mobile gaming title of this ranking, but it won’t be the last. In total, Free Fire accumulated 37.24M Hours Watched throughout 2023, more than 6M hours fewer than last year.
The most watched event for Free Fire in 2023 was the Liga Brasileira de Free Fire 2023: Series A – Stage 1. This was the 9th season of the main Brazilian Free Fire event and it received 7.67M Hours Watched by itself. The best teams of the Brazilian league qualified for the Free Fire World Series 2023, the world championship event for the esports discipline.
Free Fire is hugely popular in Southeast Asia, but Brazil remains the largest market for the battle royale at the moment.
Brazil is a rising market for the mobile gaming industry, and Free Fire is one of the most popular games for this region. Although Free Fire ranks as one of the top 5 battle royale esports of the year, viewership has been dwindling for the discipline across recent years. 2021 was the strongest year for the title. Both in terms of total tournaments held and peak viewership. But 2022 brought bad news for the esports discipline as India banned Free Fire in early 2022, citing security concerns. This was a significant blow to Free Fire, as a large portion of the market for mobile gaming is located in India.
Free Fire was slated for a grand return to India. As Garena announced earlier this year that they would release a Free Fire India title for fans later in 2023. However, just before the planned release date of September 5, Garena postponed the relaunch of Free Fire in India and fans are still anxiously waiting. Between Free Fire India and Garena’s plans to unify the regional leagues of Free Fire’s esports scene, 2024 is looking to be a significant year for the mobile gaming title.
#3 – Fortnite (51.92M Hours Watched)
Fortnite is one of the healthiest battle royale esports scenes in the industry at the moment. Showing significant growth compared to last year and moving up into the top three this year. Similar to PUBG, Fortnite has been struggling to replicate the high viewership it received thanks to its internet virality many years ago. But 2023 was a high point for the esports discipline. The first of our top three battle royales of 2023, Fortnite earned 51.92M Hours Watched in 2023.
The Fortnite Champion Series 2023 Global Championship was the most watched event of the year, having earned 5.79M Hours Watched. More than 10% of the discipline’s total watch time for the year. This event was watched by millions and received 722K Peak Viewers, making it the most popular Fortnite event since 2019. Fortnite has also had an extremely successful 2023 in terms of live streaming viewership. Thanks to its Season OG release which brought back many big-name streamers to the game.
Fortnite has had a rocky esports history. The game initially boosted its viewership through its internet virality and how ubiquitous it was in internet culture, but suffered a significant drop in viewers once this virality waned. Now, Fortnite is rebuilding its viewership through structured esports events and a stacked esports calendar. 2023 was a strong year for Fortnite’s viewership, and the developers seem invested in making 2024 even better yet for Fortnite esports.
#2 – Apex Legends (59.35M Hours Watched)
Coming in second place of our rankings is Apex Legends with 59.35M Hours Watched accumulated throughout 2023. Discipline received slightly less watch time than last year, although the discipline also saw much fewer events hosted this year.
The esports discipline is still focused on the Apex Legends Global Series, which hosted multiple events throughout the year, and the ALGS 2023 Split 2 Playoffs was the most watched event of the year with 10.65M Hours Watched. The Split 2 Playoffs of this year received more watch time than the ultimate ALGS 2023 Championship event.
Despite the ALGS 2023 Championship being the ultimate event of the year and a de-facto world championship for the esports discipline, it was not able to become the most popular event of the year either. Crazy Raccoon Cup #10 was a Japanese showmatch hosted by an esports organisation of the same name and it received over 704K Peak Viewers, becoming the most popular esports event for Apex Legends ever.
Apex Legends is growing in Japan, where it is one of the most popular esports disciplines of the region, and yet it struggles to garner consistent viewership. The ALGS 2023 season showed promise with high viewership for Split 2, but it failed to generate higher viewership at the ultimate championship event. The Crazy Raccoon Cup #10 set a new viewership peak for the discipline, proving there’s still room for growth in the game.
#1 – PUBG Mobile (134.72M Hours Watched)
PUBG Mobile was once again the most watched battle royale esports discipline of the year, and gained over 20M more hours of watch time this year compared to last. The mobile gaming esports discipline received 134.72M Hours Watched throughout 2023, becoming not only the most popular battle royale discipline, but also one of the most popular mobile gaming esports disciplines.
The PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2023 was the most watched event of the discipline in 2023, receiving over 31.3M Hours Watched alone, and garnering 980K Peak Viewers: the most of any PUBG Mobile esports events in 2023. A $3M tournament was a huge success and it became the most popular iteration of the event since its inaugural Season 0 tournament in 2021.
PUBG Mobile, like many other mobile gaming titles, receives most of its attention from Southeast Asia.
Indonesia, the Philippines, but also Turkey and Latin America are some of the biggest markets for this title. PUBG Mobile also has a cousin Battlegrounds Mobile India, a version of the game exclusively available in India. For this piece, viewership for the Indian version of the game was not included in PUBG Mobile’s statistics; if the Indian viewership is accounted for, PUBG Mobile stands out even further ahead of the competition in watch time.
The statistics here also do not include New State Mobile, a mobile gaming title and second instalment in the PUBG universe, and Game for Peace, a version of PUBG Mobile developed for the mainland China market. Game for Peace is one of China’s most popular mobile gaming options, and esports events for this title featured millions of dollars in prize pools throughout 2023. As mentioned above, viewership statistics from Chinese live streaming platforms cannot be included due to the unreliability of reported statistics.
PUBG Mobile remains the most popular battle royale title in esports, but the scene is continuously evolving. After having banned many apps and game titles in 2022, India’s market is coming back strong with the release of many India-exclusive titles for games, and the upcoming Free Fire India release is sure to be a hit.
On the other side of the globe, Brazil is a growing and promising mobile gaming market.
Hosting some of the most popular and most watched esports events for Free Fire at the moment. In terms of traditional PC games, Fortnite is continuing to expand on its post-viral success, both in esports and general live streaming.
An up-and-comer not featured on this list, Warzone is enjoying a budding esports scene, with developers Activision dipping their toes into organising a variety of esports events for the discipline through an expanded series of World Series of Warzone events this year.
Battle royale titles have been consistently some of the most popular games in both esports and live streaming since they rocketed to international success in 2017. The industry for this genre has only grown since, and developers are continuing to foster healthy esports scenes for their beloved titles.