2018 Esports Viewership by the Numbers

On a special website dedicated to highlighting all of the magic that was competitive gaming in the year 2018 as seen live on streaming platforms, the fine folks at Esports Charts released their market and data research from the previous calendar year. 

There’s no denying that Esports Tournaments are bolstered by major video and live-streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube. You can catch almost anything, like watching 2019 LEC Spring Split Playoffs, from the comfort of your home. While LAN events are a big deal (and a whole lot of fun to attend) it’s the ability to witness the high-level competitive gaming from anywhere that has grown this industry. 

Esports Charts collected all the data from those live-streaming platforms and put together a look back at the year that was 2018. Up first, Tournament charts.

Most Popular Tournaments

With both the data and research to compare hours watched and peak viewers, we can see which organized tournaments saw the most fanfare in 2018. 

The leader, in both categories, was the 2018 League of Legends World Championship. Peaking at 1.9 million viewers, the culmination of the entire years’ League of Legends from multiple different leagues around the globe is a pretty big deal every year. In 2018, two European teams and one North American team made it to the Semifinals and beyond, which drew in a whole new level of fans. 

In the second place spot, a shocking 600k viewers behind Worlds 2018, was ELEAGUE Major 2018. The big CS:GO tournament from ELEAGUE beat out DOTA 2 Major The International in third place, by 200k viewers. 

The International 2018 took charge in the hours watched category, however, with more than 14 million more hours than the ELEAGUE Major 2018. Riot Games’ Worlds 2018 tournament won out again in this category, with almost 80 million hours watched throughout 2018.

Most Popular Esports Teams

Another very interesting part of the 2018 re-cap is the notable brands and teams that climbed the charts of popularity. There is obviously a large skew towards teams with many different collectives. Those organizations that house teams competing across the widest range of Esports titles are the only once represented on this chart. 

With the first and second spots on the chart, Team Liquid and Fnatic lead the third-place Cloud 9 by almost 40 million hours watched. Why the gap? Well, it goes a long way that both Team Liquid and Fnatic have very successful teams in more than one Esport. It’s all well and good to have a long page of squads, but organizations like Cloud 9 don’t see a ton of success outside of League of Legends, Rocket League, and Smash Bros. The latter two of which don't pull in huge numbers in comparison.

It also helps Fnatic’s cause that their League of Legends squad was part of the Grand Finals in the year’s most popular tournament, the League of Legends World Championship 2018. Outside of League of Legends, Fnatic also has a rather successful CS:GO team. There’s also a Fnatic squad in Clash Royale, Dota 2, Fortnite, FIFA, Rainbow 6, and more.

Most Popular Twitch Channels

Obviously, there is a lot to discover on Twitch and YouTube, and there is a very common group of names that are mentioned when it comes to leaders of the pack. But this data is specifically in regards to the Esports world, these top channels are all in relation. 

Coming in at the number one spot, to no one’s surprise, is Riot Games. This channel is the home for all sorts of professional League action. Most importantly of which is the LEC (League of Legends European Championship) and the LCS (League of Legends Championship Series). The Riot Games Twitch and YouTube channels are also home to the League of Legends World Championships, and all kinds of Academy or Collegiate competition.  

Behind Riot is the Overwatch League, which is rather impressive as the organized competitive Overwatch platform was in its first season during the 2018 calendar year. In third place, is the surprising GamesDoneQuick charity channel. 

GDQ hosts two gigantic charity streams per year (one in the summer, one in the winter) in which gamers of all kinds gather and speed-run games from all genres to raise money for certain charities. The almost 40 million hours watched is impressive, but it most likely comes from the seven-days-straight of streaming they do twice per year.

In 2019, we’re sure that the viewership of Esports events will continue the growth trend. As more companies -- like ESPN who announced the Collegiate Esports Championship -- start to play bigger roles within the genre and community, Esports as a whole will only hold or grow in its momentum. 

We will continue to pick apart all of the gorgeous data provided by Esports Charts and may report back with interesting findings. Until then, you can catch all of the Esports coverage and content here on Twin Galaxies.