The 2016 League of Legends World Championship was a month-long journey for Riot Games and the community across major cities of North America. The annual illustrious event visited San Francisco for the group stages, Chicago for quarterfinals, New York for semifinals, and beautiful Los Angeles for the grand finals.
Today, we come to know just how many people tuned in to watch the 2016 League of Legends World Championship. According to a “By the Numbers” infographic posted by Riot Games, an astonishing 43 million unique viewers streamed the final matches. Additionally, a peak concurrent viewership of 14.7 million was recorded.
It’s important to clarify that these numbers cater to only the grand finals of the championship where SK Telecom T1 faced Samsung Galaxy in a sensational best-of-five series.
Comparing the figures to previous championships makes it apparent that more and more people are investing their interest in the esports array of League of Legends. The free-to-play game is steadily growing with time, as if that was even debatable in the first place.
2014 – Samsung Galaxy White vs. Star Horn Royal Club
Unique Viewers: 27 million, Peak Concurrent Viewers: 11.2 million
2013 – SK Telecom T1 vs. Star Horn Royal Club
Unique Viewers: 32 million, Peak Concurrent Viewers: 8.7 million
A total of 31 equipment trucks, 64 projectors, and 308 moving lights ensured that the 2016 World Championship finals took place as intended.
The infographic also reveals that the entire month-long championship matches were broadcast in 18 languages and over 23 mediums, including Twitch and YouTube.
$6.7 million in prize money was distributed between the teams, of which $3 million came through fan-contribution and $1.6 million through team icon sharing.
Elsewhere in the graph, Riot Games confirmed that over 370 million hours were spent watching live esports coverage of the event across the globe. 396 million daily unique impressions were being registered on average, and over 49 hours accounted for actual total gameplay time.
The numbers are remarkable! Congratulations to Riot Games and everyone who was involved with this year’s event.
