The League of Legends Worlds Final is set to become the most watched League of Legends match of all time. Both of the semifinals managed to become the most viewed semifinals of all time and that trend is bound to continue now that the final is between a Western and Chinese team.
During most of the League of Legends Worlds tournaments, the most viewed matches are the ones with Chinese teams as China just brings in massive viewership numbers. If you would exclude the Chinese viewership numbers it, the finals would often receive the most viewers although a lot of Western viewers would not be particularly interested in the Worlds finals as it would often feature two Korean teams. This year, however, everything seems to be different.
Since Cloud9 versus Fnatic was such a big event, this single semifinal has become the most-watched semifinal of all times with a total of 1.5 million viewers excluding Chinese fans. This is quite important as it shows that the West is staying interested in Worlds as the tournament goes on whereas normally this wouldn’t be the case. Although Cloud9 has lost, it’s still very likely that a lot of NA residents are going to tune into the stream next Saturday to support Fnatic as it’s a huge opportunity for the West to prove itself on the Worlds stage.
Similarly to Cloud9 versus Fnatic, the semifinal between G2 and IG has become the most-watched semifinal including Chinese viewership numbers with a total of 149 million viewers. This is more than last year’s semifinal between SKT T1 and RNG which only reeled in 109 million viewers. Since IG has beaten G2 and advanced to the Worlds final it’s expected that the Chinese viewers will naturally have more interest in the finals compared to most years, just like with Western fans.
Now that all of China and all of the West is behind a team in the finals it’s expected that this will be the most watched Worlds final in League of Legends history. There’s a chance that the viewership number might even surpass 150 million which would a really huge achievement. Hopefully, Fnatic versus IG will be a show to watch and not just another 3-0 stomp to make the finals even more exciting for all those millions of viewers around the world.
