League of Legends championship finals viewers number 2016-2022

The League of Legends World Championship is an annual tournament hosted by Riot Games which pits the best League of Legends eSports players against each other for the chance to win a large amount of money. Since 2019, the League of Legends World Championships had an average prize pool of more than two million U.S. dollars. The competition draws not just professional gamers but also avid fans of the game as well, as is evident from the large audience following the 2022 League of Legends World Championship Final, which almost reached 5.15 million peak concurrent viewers.

Professional eSports players’ earnings

Professional eSports players can earn a significant sum of money throughout their gaming careers. For instance, Lee Sang-Hyeok, who was the leading League of Legends player worldwide according to overall earnings, had won more than 1.4 million U.S. dollars since he began his eSports career. Looking at other games as well, Johan Sundstein was the leading eSports player worldwide based on overall earnings, having received more than seven million U.S. dollars since he started playing Dota 2 professionally. Meanwhile, Sasha Hostyn, who is well known for her achievements playing Starcraft II, was the leading female eSports player based on career earnings, having pocketed more than 400 thousand U.S. dollars since picking up the controller professionally.

League of Legends on Twitch

One way for eSports fans to tune in and watch their favorite gamers is using Twitch, a live streaming platform which offers gaming video content in addition to various other forms of online entertainment. In the 30 days preceding December 2022, loltyler1 was the leading League of Legends streamer on Twitch, having amassed close to 3.4 million viewership hours in that period. Focusing on number of hours different games were watched within a week, League of Legends was the third most popular video game on Twitch, with Grand Theft Auto V ranking first.