Comparing Esport Viewership Records of CS:GO, League of Legends and Dota 2

The rise of esports has become more prevalent in recent years with more and more people tuning in to watch their favorite games and esports teams. Titles such as League of Legends, CS: GO, and Dota have broken various viewership records on Twitch and other streaming platforms.

While each of these titles appeals to a similar audience, their viewership records still differ when comparing their biggest esports events of the year.

The biggest esports tournaments

The first Dota 2 International was initially hosted at Gamescom in 2011, and it has been held yearly since then except in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event features 18 teams: 12 from the Dota Pro Circuit finals and six from the winners of regional playoffs in North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. The International is sponsored by developer Valve.

The Majors is the most prestigious LAN tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and just like Dota 2, it's sponsored by developer Valve. In 2013, Dreamhack Winter hosted the debut CS:GO Major in Jönköping, Sweden, with a total prize pool of US$250,000 split among 16 teams.

The League of Legends World Championship or Worlds is Riot Games' biggest esports event held at the end of each season. Teams fight for the Summoner's Cup, millions of dollars in championship prizes, and the right to call themselves world champions.

The World Championships have grown in popularity, becoming one of the most prominent and watched esports events in the world. As a result of its popularity, esports became well-known and highly regarded as a possible Olympic sport, with a medal event planned for the 2022 Asian Games.

Viewership records for 2018

According to Newzoo data, The Internationals viewership on YouTube and Twitch increased by 12.3% to 49.3 million hours viewed in 2018, up from 43.9 million compared to the previous year. That was enough to make it the year's third-largest esports event, behind only Worlds and the ELEAGUE Majors. The Internationals had a peak viewership of 1,205,979, and an average of 537,678 viewers.

While around 1,084,946 people watched the CS: GO London Major 2018, the ELEAGUE Major, which took place in January 2018, was the most-watched CS: GO tournament that year, with peak viewers reaching 1,329,096. The ELEAGUE major 2018 had an average of 423,557 viewers.

In 2018, the World Championship took place in South Korea and came first in viewership records compared to the others. It had 651,178 Average Viewers, and 82,428,261 Hours Watched. The most-watched game was the finals between IG and FNC which drew 2,050,475 views across various streaming platforms. Over 1 million viewers were live to stream the game on twitch, followed by YouTube, which had around 792k viewers.

Viewership records for 2019

The International in 2019 took place in China. According to Esports Charts, the final match drew almost 2 million viewers across all platforms making the International the most-watched Dota 2 event in history at the time. It had an average of 738,873 viewers and 88,418,374 hours watched.

The StarLadder Major Berlin 2019 was the biggest event for CS: GO this year with an average viewership of 356,494 people and 44,977,615 hours watched. The finals between Astralis and AVNGR which drew a peak audience of 836,716 people, was the most-watched match of the CS: GO tournament.

The event with the highest viewership records for this year was also Worlds. The 2019 world championship was an offline tournament held in LEC Studio in Germany which began 2nd October 2019 and ended 10th November 2019. The game had 3,985,787 Peak Viewers, 136,980,921 hours Watched, and 1,042,341 average Viewers.

Viewership records for 2020

Due to the pandemic at the time, the Dota 2 international tournament was canceled. The Majors also became an online tournament in 2020 due to the COVID-19 status. The finals of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 tournament established a huge viewership record for a non-major Counter-Strike event. Esports Charts says the final's peak viewing was 1,002,132, a new record for the ESL's Intel Extreme Masters series.

The Worlds 2020 was also held offline in Shanghai Media Tech Studio, China. The games started on 25th September 2020 and ended on 31st October 2020. A total of 3,882,252 peak viewers and 1,113,702 average viewers was recorded, with 139,862,355 hours watched. Although the pandemic affected the activities and schedules of every esports title, Worlds 2020 still managed to attract a huge amount of viewers.

Viewership records for 2021

LAN tournaments finally made their return in 2021, with fans eager to see their favorite teams compete in crowd-filled arenas once again. With some tournaments having been on a 2-year hiatus during the pandemic, expectations were sky-high for audience turnout.

The International 2021 was the tenth annual edition of the Dota Pro Circuit's concluding tournament, which returns to Europe for the first time since 2011. The event broke viewership records compared to previous Dota 2 events. It attracted about 2,741,514 live viewers during the final game between PSG.LGD, and Team Spirit. The event had 857,343 average viewers, and 107,238,312 hours watched, a huge increase compared to events in previous years.

Natus Vincere (NAVI) won the PGL Major Stockholm 2021, making history by becoming the first CS: GO team to win a major without dropping a single map. It wasn't the only record-breaking achievement as the grand finals between NAVI and G2 Esports also broke the all-time CS: GO viewership record. On 7th November 2021, the grand finals reached a peak viewership record of 2,748,434, 593,061 average viewers with 71,266,120 hours watched. A record higher than that of the International 10.

This resulted in a viewing record for CS: GO, ensuring that it would go down in history as one of the game's most successful Majors. It outperformed the previous high of 1,331,781 concurrent viewers established during ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 by a huge 1,416,653 viewers, a massive 200 percent increase in viewership.

Worlds 2021, held in Iceland, still came out on top in viewership records. It had a prize pool of over 2.2 million dollars, with 22 teams competing. The games started on 5th October 2021 and ended on 6th November 2021. EDward Gaming of China defeated DWG KIA South Korea in the finals (3-2) and took a prize total of $489 500. It was recorded that it had 4,018,728 peak viewers during the final game which set an all-time high for LoL esports.

The event had 1,298,219 average viewers with 174,826,794 hours watched making it the most-watched esports event compared to the International 10, and the PGL Major Stockholm 2021.