Thus, the largest League of Legends (LoL) tournament of the year has officially concluded. After 5 tense games, the DRX team has ascended to the highest position of the 2022 World Championship (Worlds). Contrary to predictions, both T1 and DRX delivered a dramatic match rather than a one-sided result. Viewers even felt more anxious than the players competing live.
This year, numerous individual and team achievements have been recorded, ushering in a new era for the development of LoL. In addition to these figures, the viewership for the final match at Worlds 2022 also reached a record high (excluding online platforms in the mainland market).
According to statistics from Esports Charts, the peak live viewership for the match between T1 and DRX reached 5.1 million viewers. Among them, the streaming platform Twitch garnered 2.8 million views, while YouTube Gaming achieved 1.7 million views. When broken down by language, English commentary channels reached a maximum of 1.6 million views, Korean reached 1.2 million views, and Spanish reached 855 thousand views.
Compared to the final between DWG KIA and Edward Gaming in 2021, where the peak viewership was just over 4 million, the 2022 Worlds recorded significant growth in audience numbers for the final match. This year, during the Play-In Stage and Group Stage, viewership dropped sharply compared to previous years. This was due to the airing time conflicting with the biological clock of the Asian viewer community.
However, the finals were held later than the previous rounds, at a time when the Asian community was awake. Additionally, the presence of the greatest LoL team, T1, in the final match garnered even more attention for the tournament. Moreover, viewers were keen to follow the relationship between Faker and Deft – two high school friends who have been connected since their early professional days.
With the intense developments of the finals, the 2022 Worlds will deeply resonate in the memories of viewers worldwide, becoming an unforgettable experience. Congratulations to DRX, congratulations to Deft and his teammates on becoming champions after an extraordinary journey in this year’s tournament.