Last Sunday, the Worlds 2023 in League of Legends set a new record for T1 and Faker, and the Worlds were able to break a viewership record in the esports field, surpassing a free mobile game.
The final of the Worlds 2023 was a big event for T1:
- The Korean T1 won dominantly against the Chinese team WBG
- Faker and the T1 team have now become world champions 4 times in their career
- Faker is now the oldest Worlds winner at 27 years old
Apart from the gameplay records, League of Legends also broke the record for the most-watched esports event. With a peak of over 6 million viewers, the Worlds were able to dethrone a free mobile game.
A new champion was also showcased at the event:
How many watched? According to escharts.com, the peak in the final was 6,402,720 viewers. However, it’s important to consider that the numbers from Chinese streaming services were not included, so one can assume even higher numbers, especially since a Chinese team WBG played in the final.
The previous record holder was the Free Fire World Series 2021 in Singapore with a peak of about 5.4 million viewers. Free Fire is a free battle royale game for mobile platforms that also holds a world championship every year.
Looking at the numbers for previous esports events on Statista.com, one can see that the LoL Worlds are a dominant force:
- Worlds 2020: 3.88 million viewers
- Worlds 2021: 4.02 million viewers
- Worlds 2022: 5.51 million viewers
The enormous increase in the various Worlds numbers shows that League of Legends manages to gain more and more viewers and that the esports field is growing bigger and attracting more fans.
Faker is probably the biggest icon in League of Legends, which is why many try to imitate him:
LoL: Mortals want to be like Faker after his genius move, fail