A Closer Look at Esports Viewership in May | Free Fire’s Record-Breaking Month
Esports Charts is the go-to place for esports-related viewership numbers. The quantity (and quality) of their statistics is second to none, featuring numerous esports categories and covering all notable events on a daily basis.
Every month, the hardworking folks over at Esports Charts and Esports Insider present us with an in-depth Esports Viewership breakdown. Esports viewership in May, in particular, has some interesting figures to showcase.
The explosion of mobile esports is still the main topic. Games Free Fire, Clash Royale, and PUBG Mobile are enjoying excellent popularity, and the figures don’t show any signs of slowing down.
Garena Free Fire is surely the most interesting name in the mobile esports scene right now! Free Fire’s record-breaking month is the main talking point in esports circles. The Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore had over 5.4 million peak viewers, thus becoming the most popular esports competition ever. And, mind you, that’s excluding Chinese viewers!
Esports Viewership in May | Other Notable Specimens
Free Fire was the record-breaking game, according to ESCharts esports viewership in May. However, there were several other notable events that made for an overall extraordinary month of esports!
Last month, Free Fire's World Series broke the all-time peak viewership record (excluding Chinese viewers).
— Esports Insider (@esportsinsider) June 17, 2021
Read this, and more, in our monthly esports viewership breakdown with @EsportsCharts: https://t.co/KGqaHyKzGN pic.twitter.com/Ok3cdCp0mZ
Riot Games is our primary focus here. Not only did they host a largely successful Mid-Season Invitational in League of Legends, but also the first international LAN event in Valorant. Both competitions were held in Reykjavík, Iceland, and featured AAA production quality as well as a ton of top-tier action in Riot Games’ FPS and MOBA masterpieces.
Needless to say, the viewers showed up on both occasions!
The League of Legends’ 2021 MSI averaged just above 711k concurrent viewers, with peak viewership somewhere around the 1.83m mark. These numbers are significantly higher than those of the 2019 MSI iteration. The 2019 event had “just” 537k concurrent and 1.7m peak viewers.
Valorant’s first international LAN event gathered over 1 million peak viewers for the finals between Fnatic and Sentinels. On average, it had roughly 488k viewers, which isn’t bad for a game that’s only one year young.
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