Worlds 2019 finals breaks Twitch viewing record, beats Fortnite

Olivia Richman Published 12/11/2019

Although some viewers around the world might have needed some extra coffee to wake up or stay up and watch the World Championship over the weekend, the last weekend of Worlds still managed to break Twitch’s record for all-time peak concurrent viewers.

The finals had 1.7 million viewers on Twitch alone, which beat the previous record by 100,000. With this, League of Legends has surpassed Dota 2 and Fortnite as the most-watched stream of 2019, as well as the most-watched event of all-time on the streaming platform.

Earlier this year, Dota 2’s The International 2019 pulled in 1.1 million Twitch viewers during its finale. This was soon surpassed by Fortnite’s Black Hole event last month, which became the most-watched event of all-time with 1.6 million concurrent viewers.

Fortnite and League of Legends fight for most watched game on Twitch

Fortnite has been dominating the Twitch scene for a while now. In March of last year, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins put Fortnite on the map when he played some games with rapper Drake. The stream boasted 628K concurrent viewers. A few months later, Fortnite’s first-ever Celebrity Pro-Am had 1.5 million concurrent viewers, which became the new record. The Fortnite World Cup had a little over 1.3 million concurrent viewers, making it the most-watched esports event at the time.

Although Fortnite remained the most-viewed title on Twitch throughout that entire period, League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive were not too far behind. At one point, League of Legends even surpassed Fortnite thanks to Worlds 2018. The final weekend there saw 1.14 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, which was 50,000 more than Worlds 2017’s views. It remained the most-watched esports event on Twitch until the Fortnite World Cup.

CSGO, Apex Legends, and PUBG fight to remain in Twitch’s top 10

For now, League of Legends has finally surpassed Fortnite as the most-viewed esport on Twitch. Following Fortnite is CSGO with a little over 1.1 million views for their most-watched game.

World of Warcraft is still in fourth, with around 1 million views at its peak. Classic’s recent relaunch played a part in its rapid climb up the ranks. But it also had a lot of support from big-name streamers like Ninja, who have used the game to have some fun while they were avoiding Fortnite’s infamous Season X changes.

Battle royales Apex Legends and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are next on the charts. When Apex Legends first hit the scene, it took Twitch by storm. Despite beating Fortnite’s previous record to become the game with the most collective hours watched in a single day, 8.28 million hours thanks to February’s Twitch Rivals tournament, the game quickly lost steam from there. By May it was seeing a significant decrease in views on Twitch.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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