The League of Legends MSI 2023 recorded the lowest viewership for the tournament since 2019 at its grand finals.
JDG defeated BLG in a thrilling 4-game series to win MSI 2023. This is the third time in a row that an LPL team has won the championship at this tournament, and even though it was one of the most anticipated games heading into the competition, it appears that certain teams garnered greater support from the crowd.
LoL MSI 2023 Final sees lowest viewership in recent years
After the atmosphere calmed, the players found that the grand finale of MSI 2023 had received very little attention. According to Esports Charts, the game’s 1.1 million peak viewers were the fewest for a grand final since the 2019 competition.
This represents a significant decline from the grand final audiences for the prior Mid-Season invitational tournaments, which in 2022 and 2021 attracted 2.2 million and 1.8 million viewers, respectively.
The upper bracket final between T1 and JDG, which stretched to five games, was the most-watched game at MSI 2023. 2.29 million people watched the whole game, setting a new record for the entire tournament. Only 2.19 million people watched the RNG and T1 grand finals in 2022.
It’s possible that the fact that it was an all-Chinese match rather than a cross-regional encounter, which normally generates more anticipation, contributed to the lower-than-usual audience.
Even Chinese viewers, according to one Twitter user, weren’t as enthusiastic about this final because LPL versus LCK matchups received far more attention on message boards.
Overall, the new format of MSI 2023, which allowed for multiple best of five and best of three series—something fans had been requesting—made the tournament a resounding success in terms of viewership.