Leading eSports tournaments worldwide 2021, by peak viewers

The eSports market has exploded in recent years with more and more viewers tuning in to watch the best gamers in the world do battle. The 2021 Free Fire World Series, a Garena Free Fire tournament hosted by Singapore, became the most watched eSports event of all time, with a recorded 5.41 million peak viewers. The second most viewed tournament was the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, with almost 3.99 million peak viewers.

eSports on the rise

The eSports audience size in 2021 stood at a considerable 234 million enthusiasts, on top of 240 million occasional viewers. If these figures were not impressive enough, they are forecast to grow even further in the next few years. The enthusiasts are spread across the world, but the Asia Pacific region seems to be a particular hotspot for eSports. In the United States, meanwhile, some 13.4 percent of internet users in 2021 watched eSports, with the figure expected to rise to 15.5 percent by 2023.

League of Legends tournaments

Although League of Legends was released some 12 years ago, it has only recently exploded into life thanks to the eSports market. With the increased viewership comes increased revenue, and this means that the League of Legends tournaments are worth big money. The game’s cumulative prize pool for tournaments across the world amounted to over 8.1 million U.S. dollars in 2020. As well as the Mid-Season Invitational tournament, the best LoL players also fight it out in the annual League of Legends World Championship. The stakes were higher than ever in 2018 as the total prize pool stood at 6.45 million U.S. dollars. The most recent World Championships in 2020 ended in a final match up between Damwon Gaming of South Korea and Suning of China. The South Korean team emerged as champions following a 3-1 victory, pocketing prize money of over half a million U.S. dollars.