Despite LoL Worlds 2022 trending downward in viewership in comparison to 2021 for most of the tournament, the Grand Finals broke the previous League of Legends viewership record.
Viewership was on a downward trend for much of Worlds 2022 in comparison to 2021. The time zones in which the tournament took place weren’t convenient for viewers across the globe.
With Worlds 2022 taking place in North America, matches were too early for fans in countries like China and South Korea, and too late for fans in Europe.
However, with the Grand Finals taking place between T1, arguably League of Legends’ most successful esports organization, and DRX, a team that had a record-breaking miracle run, viewers around the world stayed up (or got up) just to watch the final matches of the massive international tournament.
Worlds 2022 breaks records despite downward viewership trend
According to statistics from Esports Charts, viewership for LoL Worlds 2022 was at its highest during any game involving T1. And, while the Semifinal matches brought in around 2 million viewers a piece, the main event dwarfed the viewership for both.
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What’s more, these numbers don’t include viewership from Chinese livestreaming platforms. There’s no way to know what the exact viewer counts were from China, but, considering LoL’s immense popularity in the country, the actual viewer count was likely higher than 5.1 million.
The meteoric popularity of the Grand Finals also brought LoL Worlds 2022’s average viewership up to almost 1 million, with the final number averaging out to around 987,400. This was over 300k less than the average for Worlds 2021.
The Korean cast during the final moments of #Worlds2022! pic.twitter.com/lC7pdXeHOA
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) November 6, 2022
DRX fans were rooting for them through their miracle run, which they completed in spectacular fashion. On the flipside, T1 fans were rooting for Faker and T1 while he put everything into getting his fourth world title.
The quality of the matches and the storyline between Faker and Def, combined with co-streamers like Ibai and Sykkuno bringing viewership to the event, helped Worlds 2022 reach the 5 million viewer milestone despite some controversy around Riot’s choice of co-streamers.