Esports season in many disciplines will come to an end soon. While 2022 has been a great year for this activity so far, it’s important to take a look on 2021’s big numbers for this discipline.
In this sense, the Esports Charts editorial staff analyzed what games attracted the most viewers at tournaments last year. The list includes Battle Royale, MOBAs, mobile titles, fighting games, and even chess. Chinese streaming platforms were not included in the ranking due to the unreliability of data they provide. Discipline data includes a tournament with the highest Peak Viewers number for the year. If you are interested in the ranking of games based on the total time viewers spent on broadcasts of Esports matches, check out this report.
MOBILE ESPORTS ARE AT THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID
Only four disciplines in 2021 attracted more than 3 million Peak Viewers at tournaments. Three of the four top games are mobile ones, which are followed by the audience not on Twitch, but on other streaming services (YouTube, NimoTV, etc.).
The highest PV number was at the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore championship. Matches were watched by more than 5.4 million PV. Slightly more than 4 million PV watched League of Legends 2021 World Championship Grand Final. PUBG Mobile Global Championship Season 0 tournament drew 3.8 million PV, and the ML:BB M3 World Championship stream was watched by 3.1 million PV.
Tournaments in three PC gaming disciplines attracted between 1 and 3 million PV. The first post-pandemic CS:GO Major, PGL Major Stockholm 2021, drew 2.748 million PV, renewing a discipline record that had been held for several years. After a year pause, Dota 2 The International 10 set a new audience record of 2.741 million PV. The first Valorant World Championship (Valorant Champions 2021) also saw the highest PV number compared to any tournament in the discipline: 1 million PV.
OTHER EVENTS
Many games made it to the Top with the help of competitions that were held between streamers in various series like Twitch Rivals rather than Esports. Such events gain a significant audience because of many broadcasts on the channels of popular influencers.
There are three disciplines in the category from 500K to 1 million PV in 2021: Arena of Valor, Minecraft and Battlegrounds Mobile India. Arena of Valor International Championship 2021 attracted nearly 880K PV, owing this to fan activity from Vietnam and Thailand, where mobile MOBA is very popular. More than 913K PV watched the broadcast of MC Championship #15, where the best Minecraft players went through a speed obstacle course and participated in various challenges. The event dedicated to the launch of BGMI was watched by 537K PV. It is not surprising as it is in India that there is a huge number of mobile battle royale games fans. In fact, more than 2 million Indian gamers also watched the matches of Free Fire World Series.
The same category includes chess, which, after the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, has become much more frequently played online. In 2021, the most popular tournament was FIDE World Championship 2021, generating 613K PV on streams. Chess tournaments are also held among popular streamers. For example, Chess.com Pogchamps 3 matches were watched by 375K PV.
From 250K to 500K viewers watched Call of Duty: Warzone, Rainbow Six Siege, FIFA, Fortnite, Rocket League, HALO and Apex Legends championships. This category also includes Fall Guys and Among Us tournaments. These games got in the Top because of the Twitch Rivals show tournaments with popular streamers. Up to 250K PV were Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Bros. and other fighting game tournaments. The same category includes Knockout City show-events and Path of Exile competitions as part of Twitch Rivals.
In 2022, some disciplines have already renewed their records for Peak Viewers at tournaments. For example, Valorant Champions 2022 matches were watched by over 1.5 million PV. The current ranking of most popular Esports games in 2022 by viewership is above.