The Most Watched Esports of 2024
2024 was a monumental year for esports fans worldwide. The League of Legends World Championship shattered viewership records, and the very first Esports World Cup took place, with over twenty games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously approved a proposal to introduce Olympic esports. As the industry rapidly expands into mainstream culture, more viewers than ever are tuning in to watch fast-paced mobile, console and PC competition.
Ten titles stood out this year for their viewership metrics. Familiar names like League of Legends, DOTA 2, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and VALORANT rose to the occasion with strong engagement. Rising stars, including Arena of Valor and Free Fire, are also attracting fresh attention and redefining esports categories. Today, let's explore which ten esports games had the highest peak viewership in 2024, according to Esports Charts statistics.
Esports Games With the Highest Peak Viewers of 2024
1. League of Legends- 6,941,610 Peak Viewers
Riot Game's MOBA League of Legends is a quintessential esports title. It is one of the most popular video games, and its esports athletes like Faker, Deft and Rookie have become household names. The game is also long-standing: its World Championships have occurred for over a decade since 2011.
With such high-quality performance and strong momentum, it's no surprise that the League of Legends Worlds 2024 Grand Final recently shattered previous records and became the most-viewed esports match ever, with over 6,900,000 peak viewers. This places it solidly at the top of 2024's most-viewed esports games list, with over 2.5 million views distancing it from second place.
2. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang- 4,129,026 Peak Viewers
Mobile games took over the esports world in 2024 after worldwide exposure and notable appearances in the Esports World Cup. In fact, they make up half of this list. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is the most-viewed of the five mobile titles in this top ten selection and the second-most-viewed overall esports title of 2024. Chinese studio Moonton developed the 5v5 MOBA title, and it is hugely popular in Southeast Asia.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang attained over 4.1 million concurrent views in 2024 at its most prestigious tournament, the M6 World Championship. This event occurred in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and resulted in a first-time win for Fnatic and ONIC Esports' collaboration team, Fnatic ONIC PH.
3. Counter-Strike: 1,853,954 Peak Viewers
Counter-Strike has one of the most active and consistent esports communities with over 20 years of history and a decade of Majors. The game's tournaments foster an external betting scene and skin trade, and it has a real-world economy in its own right.
2024's Counter-Strike viewership metrics did not disappoint. The title popped off with 1.8 million peak viewers at its PGL Major in Copenhagen, landing it the third spot on this list. Ukranian org Natus Vincere took home the trophy after an intense final match against FaZe Clan.
4. VALORANT-1,687,848 Peak Viewers
VALORANT, Riot Games' first-person ability shooter, had its most successful viewership since its launch this year with over 1.6 million peak concurrent views at its Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Masters Madrid tournament. The game reached this milestone during the event's final match between Gen.G and Sentinels, which was also VALORANT legend TenZ's final S-tier tournament win before his retirement.
VALORANT's viewership growth reflects a steady overall positive trend. After only four years of release, it has skyrocketed to success and created lasting esports influence, earning a place alongside long-lasting shooter titles like Counter-Strike.
5. DOTA 2- 1,523,957 Peak Viewers
DOTA 2's The International 2024 tournament surpassed 1.5 million viewers this year and was a smashing success. The event was located in Copenhagen and sponsored by the development studio Valve and tournament organization company PGL.
DOTA 2's strong performance places it halfway through the list of most-viewed esports titles in 2024. It also signals a greater trend of MOBA game success — previous picks League of Legends and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang experienced similarly significant fan engagement.
6. Brawl Stars- 1,103,153 Peak Viewers
Game developer Supercell is famous in pop culture for Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, mobile games that became hugely successful during the 2010s. In 2018, the developer released the MOBA hero shooter Brawl Stars, which has since developed a massive esports following.
In 2024, Brawl Stars became the sixth most-viewed esports title with over 1.1 million peak concurrent viewers. It accomplished this feat during the Brawl Stars Championship in November, which took place in Helsinki, Finland.
7. PUBG Mobile- 985,418 Peak Viewers
The PUBG Mobile Global Championship accomplished over 985,000 viewers at its peak during its Grand Finals. This number is 200,000 higher than its non-mobile Battle Royale counterpart, Fortnite. The tournament took place in London and featured a sizable cumulative prize pool of 3 million USD according to the title's Liquipedia page. Korean team Dplus emerged victorious and won the event's first-place prize of more than 457,000 USD. PUBG Mobile featured in the 2024 Esports World Cup and will continue as a selected title in the 2025 Esports World Cup.
8. Fortnite- 809,854 Peak Viewers
Epic Games refreshed Fortnite this year with Fortnite OG, which brings players back to the game's 'golden era'. The title's viewership statistics are also slowly trending back toward its 2.3 million 2019 peak. In 2024, Fortnite accomplished over 800,000 peak concurrent viewers at the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) 2024 Global Championship — its highest count in four years and the eighth-highest of all games.
9. Free Fire- 751,237 Peak Viewers
Free Fire's peak of over 751,000 viewers occurred during its 2024 World Series. This event was particularly significant to the game's Brazilian fans since Rio de Janiero hosted its Global Finals and Brazilian team Fluxo took home the crown. The game is a Battle Royale title from Singaporean developer Garena and also featured in the 2024 Esports World Cup.
10. Arena of Valor- 713,507 Peak Viewers
Mobile 5v5 MOBA Arena of Valor hosts a sophisticated esports scene including Majors and Premier League tournaments. The game's 2024 Premier League playoffs in Bangkok, Thailand, peaked at over 713,000 viewers and boasted a 500,000 USD prize pool. Arena of Valor's developer TiMi Studio Group also created Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile.
