Esports competitions are taking over the world, as millions of fans gather in front of their screens to watch their favorite players and teams win exciting matches and claim prestigious trophies. Since there are many tournaments and leagues held worldwide, we’ve decided to give an overview of some of the most popular ones.
So, without further ado, let’s check them out.
League of Legends: LCK Spring
LCK is divided into Spring and Summer events, and they are among the longest-running tournaments. Both take place in South Korea and are watched by tens of thousands of players in the country and around the globe.
The LCK Spring event had total airtime of 291 hours in 2021 and was watched for 67 million hours, with the number of viewers peaking at 836,062 on January 15, 2021.
CS:GO: PGL Major Stockholm
Counter-Strike has been one of the most popular games in the world for more than two decades, and its successor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, is played by millions around the globe.
The total airtime for this competition was 120 hours, and it was watched for more than 71 million hours, with the number of viewers peaking at 2,748,424 in November 2021.
Mobile Legends: MPL Indonesia
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is a battle arena type of game similar to DOTA and League of Legends. The game has really taken off in some Asian countries, and it seems that players from Indonesia have fallen in love with it.
MPL Indonesia isn’t really an esports tournament in the classic sense. It actually resembles a league, and its eighth season has been watched for over 76.9 million hours, with 172 minutes of airtime.
DOTA 2: The International
When DOTA was launched, it was merely a map in Warcraft III. However, it turned out to be one of the most popular games in the world, and nowadays, there are millions of players around the globe actively playing its sequel. Some of them have decided to go pro, and that’s how DOTA tournaments originated.
The biggest DOTA competition is called The International. It used to be the most popular esports event for a long time before LoL World Championship took over. The popular event was watched for 107.2 million hours in 2021 (dubbed The International 10 or just TI10, recording a 21% increase compared to TI9).
League of Legends: World Championship
LoL is probably the most popular competitive game at the moment, and its World Championship is the biggest esports competition globally. The LoL World Championship (commonly referred to as “Worlds”) was watched for 174.8 million hours by esports fans around the globe, recording a 25% increase compared to Worlds 2020.
Please remember that these stats do not include Chinese platforms, meaning the real number of hours spent watching is probably much higher. The peak number of viewers who followed this event simultaneously was 4,018,728.
What Does The Future Hold?
Esports tournaments are popular in their current format, but they are evolving slowly. In fact, there are many projects nowadays aiming to harness the power of the latest technological developments in order to improve esports.
One such project is called Ignite Tournaments, and it uses the power of blockchain to improve the esports experience and make tournament organization and functionality much better. Moreover, it has paved the way for a groundbreaking tournament infrastructure based on the play-to-earn concept, thanks to the ecosystem based on its governance token $TENKA.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the most popular competitive games globally are LoL, DOTA, CS:GO, Mobile Legends, and more. Players and fans alike take part in tournaments, both as participants and supporters.
According to the stats, the popularity of online gaming tournaments has been increasing rapidly over the last couple of years, and this trend is likely to continue in the future. On top of that, many businesses are exploring how they could improve the entire experience further and take competitive gaming to the next level using the latest technologies, including blockchain.