According to Esports Charts, the final game in the Worlds 2021 finals between DWG KIA and Edward Gaming hit 4 million peak viewers, a new record for League of Legends esports. In a full five-game series, Edward Gaming won the first championship in the organization’s history and beat the reigning world champions to do it. Viewership shot up as DWG KIA and EDG faced off in first Game 5 in a Worlds finals since 2016.
The 4 million viewers for the Worlds 2021 final doesn’t include viewers included data from Chinese platforms, according to Esports Charts. Edward Gaming is a Chinese team out of the League of Legends Pro League.
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4 MILLION VIEWERS!#WORLDS2021
New record for LoL esports (excl. Chinese platforms).@EDG_Edward @DWGKIA @lolesports
— Esports Charts 🇺🇦 (@EsportsCharts) November 6, 2021
Viewership rises with a close Worlds finals match
Worlds 2021 has been a competitive and well-watched ride from the play-ins to Saturday’s final. Edward Gaming’s victory was a departure from the norm for recent Worlds finals as well; the last three world championships ended in 3-0 sweeps. Game 4 of the EDG vs. DK series broke an in-tournament record for peak viewers with 3.55 million, just besting the 3.54 million set by two of the best-known League organizations in South Korea during a five-game semifinal: T1 and DWG KIA.
3.55M Peak Viewers on 4th game of #Worlds2021 Grand Finals. More than @T1LoL vs @DWGKIA (3.54M).#LoL @lolesports @EDG_Edward @DWGKIA
— Esports Charts 🇺🇦 (@EsportsCharts) November 6, 2021
The Worlds 2020 finals between DWG KIA, then known as Damwon Gaming, and and China’s Suning hit 3.8 million concurrent viewers, according to Esports Charts. Now, in 2021, another matchup between a League Champions Korea and League Pro League team has hit higher concurrent viewership.
That record also led to a new one on Twitch. According to Esports Charts, the League of Legends section hit over 3.08 million viewers, which is a Twitch ecosystem record for the category. The League of Legends World Championship was available across multiple streaming platforms, including Twitch, YouTube and a variety of others hosted within the League of Legends client and elsewhere.
