The 2021 season continued to witness the difficulties faced by the Esports industry in general and League of Legends in particular due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. While domestic tournaments had to be held online or without an audience, international tournaments also encountered many obstacles, from organization to operation. The MSI 2021 had a record low prize pool (the champion Royal Never Give Up only received $75k) while the 2021 World Championship had to be moved from China to Iceland due to the complicated progression of the pandemic.
However, the League of Legends tournaments did not lose their appeal. Recently, according to statistics from Esports Charts, the 2021 World Championship became the most viewed esports event of 2021 with over 174 million views. This number surpassed the second place, The International 10 of DOTA 2, by about 63 million views (107.23 million).
Additionally, another notable point is that alongside the 2021 World Championship, the League of Legends community contributed three names to the top 10 most viewed esports events of 2021, namely MSI 2021, LCK Spring 2021, and LCK Summer 2021. Among them, LCK Spring entered the top 5 with 67.54 million views, while LCK Summer ranked 8th with 60.52 million views. MSI 2021 was right above, in 7th place with 61.18 million views.
This can be seen as another absolute victory for the “national game” League of Legends in 2021. These figures likely do not include streaming platforms within China because, according to some internet users, League of Legends is also a very popular game in China and this year saw the LPL dominate the international stage. If we account for viewers from the populous nation, this number would certainly be many times higher.