League World Championship finals drew 43M viewers this year

Records broken this year in Esports aren’t only about prize pools and tournaments counts, but also in viewerships as more fans are tuning in to watch championships and major events. League World Championship, the biggest LoL event had gathered more viewers in its final match than Stanley Cup finals for Hockey.

The match between SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy increased from 36 million in 2015 to 43 million, Riot said in its annual report on viewership for the event. Peak concurrent viewership grew from 14 million to 14.7 million.

The final was also the longest in Worlds history at 256 minutes, and was the first series to be decided in final game since Riot introduced the best-of-five format. SK Telecom struggled to win the match with Samsung battling back from a 2–0 deficit, helping produce the most competitive finals in recent memory.