In December 2023, there was a surge of major esports tournaments. Among them were the World Championships for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile, the two most popular disciplines in mobile esports. It was the mobile titles that dominated the top positions among the most popular tournaments of the month.
The most popular tournaments of December 2023
The most popular esports tournament in December 2023 was the M5 World Championship for Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Its grand final between ONIC Esports and AP.Bren was watched by over 5 million Peak Viewers. It marked the best turnout for the discipline and the second-highest result among all tournaments in 2023 (following the 2023 World Championship for League of Legends).
Ranked second in the top list of December’s most popular tournaments was the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2023. During its 16th round, it gathered over 980K Peak Viewers. This achievement stands as the best for PUBG Mobile in 2023 and the fifth-best for the discipline of all time.
The Arena of Valor International Championship 2023 secured the third position, drawing 539.8K PV. This many people watched the match between Saigon Phantom and Bacon Time in the tournament’s group stage. AoVIC exhibited the second-best result for the discipline in 2023, only trailing behind the Arena of Valor Premier League 2023.
At the showcase tournament Red Bull League of Its Own 2023 in Berlin, several prominent teams in League of Legends gathered, but the event’s main star was undoubtedly the Korean team T1. They had just won their fourth world championship in their history. The match between T1 and NNO Old was watched by 513K PV — a record for the event and the fourth in the top tournaments of December 2023.
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The fifth spot was claimed by the BLAST Premier World Final 2023 for Counter-Strike. Its final series between Team Vitality and FaZe Clan was simultaneously watched by 361.8K people.
The most popular tournaments of December 2023 (English viewers only)
The M5 World Championship also emerged as the leader in December for the number of viewers on English-language broadcasts, amassing over 500K PV. This was aided by the fact that a team from the North America participated in the tournament, along with numerous English-language broadcasts on TikTok.
Second in this metric was the FC Pro 24 Open tournament for the football simulator FC24. It managed to gather over 300.1K PV on English-language broadcasts. This achievement marked the second-best result in the game’s history, thanks to drop distributions — FC24 players could receive free player card packs by regularly watching the broadcasts.
The English-language broadcast of the Red Bull League of Its Own 2023 drew 265.3K PV. Approximately 221.4K people were simultaneously on the English-language broadcast of the BLAST Premier World Final 2023. The last spot in the top 5 was taken by the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2023, with 198.6K PV. The majority of English-speaking PUBG Mobile fans followed the tournament through the official broadcast on Facebook.
Overall, all these tournaments are international and made it to the top of the most popular events of the month. Hence, their presence in the top for the English language broadcasts shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The most popular esports channels in December 2023
The most popular esports channel on Twitch in December 2023 was the easportsfc channel — it gathered over 278.5K PV during the broadcasts of the FC Pro 24 Open tournament for the football simulator FC24. As mentioned earlier, this feat was achieved through in-game rewards distributed for watching the streams.
The second spot in the top list of the most popular esports channels of the month was claimed by the channel of the Spanish streamer Rubius. In December, he covered the Pokemon TwitchCup 3 tournament and attracted 249K Peak Viewers to his stream.
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Brazilian streamer Gaules secured the third spot with a peak viewership of 175.7K. His channel gathered this audience during the final match between FURIA Esports and Apeks at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023. The Brazilians emerged victorious with a score of 3:1.
Spanish streamer TheGrefg claimed the fourth position in the rankings with a peak viewership of 169.3K. Similar to Rubius, he also amassed this audience during broadcasts of the Pokemon TwitchCup 3.
Closing the top 5 esports channels of the month is the Brazilian streamer Baiano. In December, he hosted the latest show event, CBOLÃO Season 6, where popular Brazilian streamers and esports players engaged in a series of show matches in League of Legends. The event was streamed on Baiano’s channel and attracted 116K viewers.