League of Legends’ 2024 Mid-Season Invitational has become the event’s most-viewed edition ever, recording over 500,000 more peak viewers than last year.
The event, won by Korean organisation Gen.G, saw peak figures reach 2.8m viewers, according to data platform Esports charts, making it the sixth most-viewed League of Legends event in history.
MSI is historically a very popular esports tournament, with the international Leagues Of Legends event attracting more than 2m viewers for the last three years. Taking place in Chengdu, China, the 2024 edition was the most-watched MSI edition in history and the most-watched esports tournament of the year so far.
Alongside its high peak viewership figure, the event also attracted an average of just over a million viewers throughout the event. This combines to around 78m total hours watched across the entire event.
When compared to the 2023 edition, MSI 2024 recorded around 200,000 more average viewers. Last year’s tournament garnered 802,500 average viewers and a peak viewership of just under 2.3m. It’s worth noting that Esports Charts does not include viewership from Chinese platforms, meaning that the actual viewership of these events will be higher — especially considering its location this year.
Interestingly, the top three most-watched teams remained the same as in 2023, with T1, Bilibili Gaming and Gen.G taking the top spots. T1 was the most-watched team of both events (34.4m houses watched at MSI 2024), despite not winning either one.
The popularity of T1 is so immense that the most-watched match of the MSI 2024 was the lower bracket final between T1 and Bilibili, which was won by the Chinese team. T1’s MSI 2023 Bracket Stage match-up vs China’s JD Gaming was also the most-watched series for that year’s event.
The grand finals between Gen.G and Bilibili was the second-most watched series, with 2.6m peak viewers. As a result of winning this year’s Mid-Season Invitational, Gen.G secured a direct spot in the World Championship later this year.
