2020 has been an extremely challenging year for Esports. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic and related restrictions, most tournaments have been postponed or canceled to be converted into online events later on. Free Fire changed the format of the World Championship to three regional, continental series. PUBG Mobile World League and PUBG Mobile Global Championship have been implemented in online modes only. As the year draws to a close, let's take a look at some of the most-watched esports tournaments of 2020, curated by app analytics firm Esports Charts.
Most Watched Esports Events This Year
by Time Watched
League of Legends, is the most popular game worldwide and this is evident from this list as it is the 4 most watched tournament LOL events. Worlds 2020, LCK Spring (Korea), LCK Summer (Korea), and LEC Summer (Europe) were watched for 139.86 million, 65.91 million, 62.92 million, 41.06 million hours each. PUBG Mobile World League East is the first and only mobile game tournament to enter the list with 37.33 million hours watched. Last year, mobile games didn't even reach the top 20.
By Top Viewers
LOL Worlds also remains on top in terms of top viewers. This year, it was watched by 3.88 million viewers concurrently with Damwon Gaming from Korea winning their first world title. PUBG Mobile in IndiaFree Fire dominated mobile esports games in 2020. This shows that the second and third places on the list are taken by Free Fire Continental Series Asia and Americas with the most viewers of 2.5 million and 1.7 million, respectively. The Hindi broadcast of Free Fire Continental Series 2020 Asia touched 1.5 million viewers and the game was received with special love in India.
The sixth season of the Mobile Premier League in Indonesia took the fourth place with 1.3 million viewers, while Free Fire took the fifth and last place again. The FFL Clausura garnered 1.2 million concurrent viewers, making it the most popular Spanish-speaking event.
By Average Viewer
LOL Worlds also leads the average viewer list with an average of over 1.1 million viewers. The event was held in Shanghai from September 25 to October 31. FFCS Asia and Americas were not far behind, taking second and third places with 827.3k and 796.3k each. Free Fire Copa America finished fourth. It was the only event held offline in January 2020, with the exception of the 2020 World Championship, but it still managed to draw viewers to their screens. The LCK's regional finals in September 2020 rounded out the top five with an average of 540,000 viewers. The highlight of this tournament was that T1, one of the most popular teams among Koreans, fought for a place in the main event, but failed and shocked the audience.
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