- Riot has announced that the League of Legends World Championship 2021 has surpassed 1 billion hours watched
- The most-watched game of the event, the match between EDward Gaming and DWG KIA, was seen by 73 million people
- The company is already making plans about next years’ Worlds iteration
Riot Games has revealed that Worlds 2021 has capped 1 billion hours watched, with the finals getting attention by 73 million people.
Worlds 2021 Has Broken the Viewership Records
The 2021 edition of the League of Legends World Championship has broken a new record, capping 1 billion total hours watched. This was announced by the game’s developers, Riot Games.
Riot detailed that the biggest annual League of Legends event has been broadcast on a total of 34 streaming platforms, in numerous countries across the globe.
Furthermore, Riot Games released a video where it spoke about various statistics surrounding the huge esports tournament. The event had a total of 121 games which is more than all other Worlds tournaments from previous years. Out of all those games, the company revealed that the final showdown between the Korean team DWG KIA and the Chinese champions EDward Gaming was the most-watched game, as one might expect. The heated finals have hit an audience of a jaw-dropping 73 million viewers.
Other than the finals, there were quite a few other popular games, such as the semi-finals between DWG KIA against T1 and DWG KIA’s game against the MAD Lions in the event’s quarterfinals.
What Worlds’ Success Means to Gaming
The League of Legends World Championship 2021 had a strong cultural impact, especially on China where many people celebrated EDward Gaming’s victory. In fact, the Chinese were so excited by EDward Gaming’s performance, that it turns out 69 million of the 73 million grand finals viewers were Chinese, Riot Games reported.
This has sparked hopes that China will mellow down on its harsh stance against video games, as the whole nation celebrates the glorious victory of EDward Gaming.
For Riot Games, the high viewership numbers mean two things – that it is doing everything correctly and that it will have to work even harder if it wants to beat the viewership record for next year’s edition of Worlds.
Speaking of that, the company has already announced its rough plans for the LoL World Championship 2022. While the 2021 iteration took place in Iceland, Europe, after Riot’s hurdles with setting the event in China, the 2022 edition will move to North America, with finals set to be played in San Francisco.
