Just last week, the regular season's last game garnered almost 140,000 average views, about double the 80,000 viewers per broadcast that the tournament typically attracted in its first weeks. As we near the end, these numbers ought to increase.

 The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) semifinal between T1 and DWG KIA had 1,013,992 concurrent viewers at its peak, making it the game with the second-highest viewership of the year and the most popular of the 2022 LCK Summer season. This is partially due to T1's popularity; their match against Gen.G from the Spring season earlier this year had 1,374,155 concurrent viewers across all streaming platforms, while the final just a few days ago attracted more than 1.6 million concurrent viewers.

WE ARE NOT EVEN IN THE ENDGAME YET, BUT THE NUMBERS KEEP GOING UP

Competitive League of Legends attracted the most viewers of any esport in 2017 with over 664.16 million hours of total watch time. Not to mention that China and India, the two most populous nations in the world with significant esports fan bases, are not included in these statistics regarding viewership.

Esports' phenomenal success can be attributed in part to the way major businesses have promoted it. There were worries that the interest would wane due to the epidemic and the impossibility to conduct live events not long ago, but it has since only increased. The pandemic did lead to an upsurge in esports live streaming and influencer marketing, and those consequences are now being felt. League of Legends has even moved beyond the confines of its own video game roots thanks to the success of the Netflix series Arcane, which at the time of its debut last year had the highest viewership. The animated program was well-received by critics and viewers alike.

By 2024, there will be about 577.2 million esports fans, according to Newzoo, the company that conducted the global esports study. The rise in viewing in places like the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America has contributed to this boom. There has been a definite interest in mobile phone streaming in nations like India and Brazil. With specific channels for tournaments, websites like Twitch and YouTube have also made it very simple for spectators to obtain esports content. The esports community has a vibrant online community that keeps viewers interested on sites like Twitter and Reddit.

Esports will soon be a topic of conversation on a regular basis, devoted fans will debate strategy and draft in bars and cafés, and fandom will be commercialized into oblivion.

ALL VIEWERSHIP RECORDS ARE EXPECTED TO BE BROKEN BY WORLDS 2022

We strongly anticipate that all prior viewership records will be surpassed for Worlds 2022. First off, the event takes place in North America, where the match days, viewership, and timezone are all ideal for western markets that can be tracked. The fact that pre-batches of LoL Worlds tickets have already sold out suggests that the event will feature sold-out venues and historically large live audiences.

This year, Europe has four seeds at Worlds, therefore I fully anticipate that the event will draw the greatest number of viewers from throughout the continent. This will be especially highlighted if MAD Lions, Rogue, G2, and Fnatic are among the four teams there. Record-breaking figures should be heard practically everywhere.