2020 proved to be a rough year for Esports betting, especially with numerous tournaments, postponements and cancellations. The whole Esports industry had to go through difficult times due to the Coronavirus pandemic. That includes online betting opportunities. The biggest organizations in the scene forced the tournaments on an online basis. However, some organizations also canceled several tournaments of the year.
Korea’s LCK
With all the tournaments shifting online, Korea’s LCK had the best competitive 2020 so far. The year ended with DAMWON Gaming winning the League of Legends World Championship 2020. Therefore, it makes sense that the region had the most hours watched time in the whole Esports industry.
Most watched #esports tournaments in 2020:
#1 – #Worlds2020
#2 – #LCK Spring @LCK_Global
#3 – #LCK Summer @LCK_Global
#4 – #LEC Summer @LEC
#5 – #PMWL East @esportspubgmMore results in blog:https://t.co/qY16QH9MqF pic.twitter.com/cfGEw6g4Ax
Esports Charts (@EsportsCharts) December 30, 2020
Watch Time
The LCK had around 136.65 million hours of watched-time this year and over 635 hours of air time. According to the Esports Charts, these numbers do not include the Chinese platforms of the game. However, the 2020 Spring Split counted around 65.91 million hours, and the following Summer Split had around 62.9 million hours. These numbers are so impressive that if we combine both numbers they almost touch the World Championship’s hours watched time.
Mobile Legends
While the World Championship took the first place in the Esports Charts of hours watched, Mobile Legends Pro secured the second spot on the list with around 95.27 million hours watched time. The total air time of the game also reached around 1108 hours. The charts also explain that these numbers grew significantly due to the popularity of the game in the Southeast Asia region. Similarly, the MPL for the game also had the fourth-highest peak viewership of any esports tournament with around 1.3 million viewers.
LoL World Championship
Ultimately, the League of Legends’ World Championship took the lead over any other Esports tournament, in terms of watch time. The tournament catered to around 139 million hours of watched time. According to the Esports Charts, the World Championship also took the lead in other aspects of the industry. The tournament became the most popular esports tournament by average viewership and by peak viewership.
Future of LCK
According to this year’s popularity and the number of hours watched, the community and multiple analysts think that LCK will come back stronger in 2021. The global scene of League of Legends increased drastically this year and tournaments are now more competitive. Fans should expect the Esports Charts for the World Championship and LCK in 2021, going high.
League of Legends has broken all former records of most-watched hours for a single tournament. Not just securing the first rank, the game has secured multiple other top 10’s in the list. The number 139-million is now the new record by any tournament to cater this many hours of watch time. With moving in 2021, the esports scene is getting bigger and bigger. The Coronavirus pandemic has caused so much pain to the global esports industry. However, in some way, it has brought back the sports betting players who left the scene long ago.