The Arena of Valor International Championship 2023 concluded on December 24 at the Military Zone 7 Competition Center, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It ended as the most-watched event in the series and one of the highest-viewed ones in the discipline ever.
After around a month and a half of intense action, Talon Esports beat Valencia CF eSports 4:2 in an all-Thai Grand Final to emerge as the champion. The winner took home $200K out of the total $500K prize pool while the runner-up received $100K as compensation for the heartbreaking loss in the decider.
Most popular matches and essential statistics from the AIC 2023
The Arena of Valor International Championship 2023 hit 539.8K Peak Viewers during the Group Stage, Day 8 clash between Saigon Phantom and Bacon Time.
These two sides also met in the ultimate match of the Arena of Valor Premier League 2023. Where the Vietnamese side beat its Thai opponent easily. To emerge as the champion of the most popular tournament in the history of the discipline so far.
With regional pride at stake yet again, it was Bacon Time who avenged its loss at the mid-season major for Arena of Valor’s 2023 season. And provided a sign of things to come for its country later on. It was one of the three Group Stage games in this top five matches list, with Saigon Phantom’s early elimination and the failure of all three Vietnamese sides to cross the pool phase. The first time at an international Arena of Valor tournament — proving a major dent to the tournament’s popularity.
All viewership statistics listed in this article do not include data from Chinese live-streaming platforms. The publically available viewership information for these platforms needs to be more reliable and track the number of viewers, the absence of which makes comparisons to other live-streaming platforms impossible.
However, sides from Thailand, the next largest market for the game, capitalized on this chance to emerge as its new force. At least until the new season starts. Their success was critical in this AoV competition recording 17.9M Hours Watched and 120.9K Average Viewers over 149 hours of airtime.
Most popular sides at the Arena of Valor International Championship 2023
Despite getting knocked out of the Group Stage after a disappointing 1-4 record, meaning it did worse than its compatriot teams, the much-vaunted Saigon Phantom was the most popular at the AIC 2023. In fact, despite only playing five games each, two sides from Vietnam made the top five of this standing. Showing just how popular the game is there.
Staying with the Vietnamese theme. Its love for Arena of Valor can also be seen in the fact that the language was the most-watched one at this event. Taking up more than half the overall chart. YouTube showcased similar dominance when it comes to languages, notching 74.79% of the overall HW number. With only one other streaming service touching double digits for percentage share.
Six most-watched events in the Arena of Valor International Championship series
Regarding tournament comparisons, the AIC 2023 became the most-watched event in this world series, beating the 2020 edition by a mere 3.2%.
These are also the only two such competitions to have passed the 17M mark. With this year’s edition also helped by the fact that it had an airtime that was at least 34 hours and 20 minutes longer than any other entry.
What mainly helped the Arena of Valor International Championship 2023 was that there were almost double the number of channels streaming the action live compared to last year. Moreover, the intense interest shown by Thai fans in supporting their sides saw the language improve its HW count by 41.4% year-on-year. Playing a pivotal role in the event’s success.
Six most-viewed competitions in Arena of Valor esports history
Last but not least, this tournament also became the sixth-most viewed CoV event of all time, with three names from 2023 populating the top six. Leading the pack is the Arena of Valor Premier League 2023, which broke several records and is by far the most successful competition in this discipline.
It has been a year of change and success for AoV. With the AIC 2023’s new status as the penultimate level of the joint season alongside Honor of Kings not stopping it from doing great numbers. With the Honor of Kings International Championship 2023 still going on, fans of the game could be in for some more good news come the new year.
