After a thrilling Play-In stage, which saw teams like MAD Lions KOI, GAM Esports, paiN Gaming, and PSG Talon secure their spots, Worlds 2024 kicked off its first day of Swiss matches on October 3. Right from the start, the tournament drew in millions of viewers, fueled by the broad appeal of best-of-one games. It even set a new viewership record for the series, with a major boost coming from T1 and the Korean fanbase.
Heading into the main stage of the League of Legends World Championship, some of the most high-profile teams for global viewership made it through. The qualification of MAD Lions KOI, co-owned by popular Spanish streamer Ibai, attracted significant attention from the Spanish-speaking community. Meanwhile, teams from Vietnam, Brazil, and Chinese-speaking regions brought their own regional audiences into the mix.
It’s important to note that statistics from Chinese livestreaming platforms are unreliable, so the Chinese-language viewership mentioned here only reflects platforms like Twitch and YouTube outside of mainland China.
The Swiss Stage format begins with best-of-one matches, with elimination and qualification rounds as best-of-threes. This structure allows all teams to compete on the first day, helping to maximize global viewership in a single event. Esports Charts reported that the opening day of Worlds 2024 amassed over 14.2 million hours watched—a staggering 52.7% increase from the previous year. Both total watch time and average viewership saw significant boosts, with Worlds 2024 now on track to surpass the previous record-holding event.
the peak
The peak concurrent viewership hit 2.82 million during T1’s match against Top Esports Gaming. Korean viewership had been lower during the Play-In stage due to the absence of Korean teams, but once the main stage began, Korean fans surged to become the largest audience, peaking at 734.6K viewers.
Korean fans also strongly supported Gen.G’s match against Weibo Gaming, the second most-watched game of the day with a peak of 2.31 million viewers. Other regions also showed impressive numbers, with Vietnamese fans hitting a peak of 529.3K, marking the highest Vietnamese viewership for a non-playoff League of Legends match. Brazil, France, Spain, and Chinese-speaking regions also demonstrated strong followings. However, Japanese viewership was notably low, likely due to the early elimination of Japan’s Fukuoka SoftBank HAWKS.
YouTube
The official LCK YouTube Live stream dominated the viewership charts with 397.3K peak viewers, especially during T1’s match. Interestingly, both the Vietnam Championship Series and popular caster Caedrel also hit their viewership peaks during this game. Vietnamese fans, despite having their own team in GAM Esports, were particularly drawn to T1’s debut match.
Overall, the opening day of Worlds 2024 saw a diverse international audience come together, solidifying it as a standout event in esports. Worlds 2024 is already on pace to surpass last year’s viewership numbers, which made Worlds 2023 the most popular esports event to date. Keep an eye on live viewership data for Worlds 2024 via Esports Charts’ tournament page.
