The esports industry relies heavily on meticulous planning and timing, particularly concerning tournament schedules. The modern esports scene adheres to a clear structure, with each discipline following a seasonal format that includes major leagues, tournaments, and world championships planned out month by month. Precise planning assists teams in managing sponsorships, handling training schedules, and executing roster changes. Players, in turn, are made aware of the season’s schedule in advance, facilitating the organization of vacations during breaks between tournaments.
Clear scheduling is also crucial for fans to anticipate which days of the week matches for a particular league take place. Naturally, peak viewership activity occurs on weekends when people are less distracted by work or school. Esports Charts analyzed esports statistics for 2022-2023 and calculated the activity levels during weekends compared to other days.
Most active day
The most active day of the week in esports is Sunday, accounting for over 25% of the total average weekly watch time of esports. Additionally, approximately 24% of the total falls on Saturday. In other words, roughly half of the esports watch time is accumulated on weekends. The share of other days fluctuates from 6% to 16%, with values increasing closer to the weekend.
Interestingly, Monday slightly deviates from the overall trend, gathering slightly more watch time than Tuesday. This discrepancy arises from the peculiarities of calculations, as GMT time zone was utilized in our research. Mondays tend to attract some of the actual Sunday watch time, as certain tournaments span across the week transition: when it’s already Monday in Europe, Sunday is still ongoing in the United States.
The top 5 most-watched esports titles
The top 5 most-watched esports titles throughout the week remain consistent: League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Valorant, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. League of Legends generates more watch time than other games almost every day. Except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when Riot Games’ MOBA yields the lead to Counter-Strike. This indicates well-structured scheduling of regional League of Legends leagues, which occur on different days throughout the week, allowing game fans to watch esports matches regularly.
Additionally, Counter-Strike accumulates more watch time from Monday to Thursday, ranging from 17.3% to 22.4%. On weekends, its share becomes smaller and is between 10.6% to 13.1%: one reason is that Counter-Strike is popular for its long-league format, often starting in the middle of the week. Another reason is that major tournament finals are usually held on weekends, resulting in higher competition from other games.
While Saturdays and Sundays are typically the busiest days of the week for most games, there are exceptions. For instance, Wednesday became the most active day for Rainbow Six Siege esports, as many popular matches of international tournaments were scheduled on Wednesdays. Wednesday also emerged as the most popular day for Call of Duty: Warzone as it frequently hosts a plethora of 3rd party streamer events during the working week.
