Esports illustrated

Rocket League World Championship Breaks Viewership Records

The Rocket League fandom has continued to grow immensely, leading to the World Championship breaking records.

Olivia Richman

Rocket League World Championship Breaks Viewership Records
Rocket League World Championship Breaks Viewership Records /

Rocket League’s developer Psyonix’s founded the Rocket League Championship Series in 2016, creating an organized way for top players to compete throughout the year. The culmination of the action is the World Championship, which took place on August 13 in Germany and is now the biggest Rocket League esports event in history.

The World Championship Grand Finals match between Team Vitality and Team BDS had a peak of 425,196 viewers. The previous record for the car-soccer hybrid was 368,721. The French teams drew in a massive crowd. It was reported that English language streams peaked at 291,646 viewers and French language streams peaked at 203,175, which isn’t far behind.

But it wasn’t only the Grand Finals that drew in an impressive crowd. In fact, it was the semi-finals that had the most views. But the entire World Championship was a massive W for fans of competitive Rocket League, according to data from Esports Charts.

The average viewership was 154,302, which beat last year’s 147,858 average viewers. This year had 10 million hours watched compared to last year’s 9.5 million hours watched.

These were the most-watched matches during the World Championship weekend:

  • Karmine Corp vs Team Vitality - 468.292 viewers
  • Team Vitality vs Team BDS - 425,196 viewers
  • Team BDS vs Team Liquid - 309,898 viewers
  • Complexity Gaming vs Karmine Corp - 288,114 viewers
  • G2 vs Team BDS - 281,128 viewers

For the Rocket League community, this event proved that the game is growing and the fans are here to stay. A lot of people in the competitive scene noted that Rocket League esports has “refused to die” no matter the challenge.

What started off as a grassroots scene with no investors has turned into a multi-million industry. The RLCS 2022-23 season had a prize pool of $6 million, with the World Championship including $2.1 million of that.

Even with the esports industry continuing to see financial issues — like Blizzard admitting that the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League are in trouble, as well as esports organizations laying off hundreds of employees left and right — the fans are not going anywhere. In fact, more and more are showing up as the competitiveness and intensity of the Rocket League scene continues to increase.

Said Psyonix Esports Product and Operations Lead Murty Shah: “Our team, one that’s full of so many talented people, is on a mission to prove out the idea that Rocket League is the perfect esport.”

The mission is to continue putting on massive LAN events all over the world, growing the fanbase of Rocket League even more.

After Gamers8, there may be a lull in the Rocket League esports action. But this should only give the team more time to put together an even bigger Rocket League season for next year. Fans should expect even more events, even more competitive teams, and maybe even a bigger prize pool. No matter what, expect more eyes on Rocket League than ever before. 

Published
Olivia Richman
OLIVIA RICHMAN

Olivia is a long-time esports journalist and editor who covers just about every game but has a deep love for the FGC. Her goal is to find community-driven stories that bring a new perspective to the esports scene. In the past, she has worked for Team Liquid, Rogue, Inven Global, Dot Esports, Upcomer, and more. Outside of esports, Olivia enjoys Kirby, Pokemon TCG, Fallout, and writing science fiction. She can be found trying out new foods, traveling, or hanging out with her two orange cats.  Fun fact: Olivia can do some video game and cartoon impressions! 

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