May hosted some of the most popular esports events of the year across various esports disciplines. In this article, Esports Charts has collated a ranking of the most popular esports events of the month by peak concurrent viewership and also segregated this data into different subcategories.
Firstly, the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 for League of Legends was not only the most popular event of May, but the most popular esports event of 2024 so far. Following on from the success of last year’s Worlds event, the 2024 MSI reached 2.83M peak viewers for its lower bracket final featuring T1 and Bilibili Gaming. League of Legends continues to lead the esports scene by peak viewership, with the MSI setting a new series viewership record this year.
Most Popular Tournaments of May 2024
Moving to mobile gaming, the MPL Indonesia Season 13 and MPL Philippines Season 13 were the second and third most popular events of May. The Filipino tournament reached 824K peak viewers for its grand final match on May 26, but the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Indonesian circuit still has viewership to garner.
Compared to the Filipino season which ended in May, the Indonesian MPL season will continue into June, with viewership continuing to rise. Season 13 of the MPL ID reached 1.7M peak viewers for its Week 8 match, but with playoffs currently kicking off for the event, this will likely be surpassed. The total peak viewership record for the season stands at 1.86M PV, so the grand finals will be hoping to hit at least 2M concurrent viewers.
Another mobile gaming title, Arena of Valor’s AoG Spring 2024, reached 656.5K peak viewers. This not only amounted to the highest viewership the game has seen in 2024 so far but also a viewership record for the Arena of Glory tournament series. Since releasing its international version, the game has been finding new audiences outside of mainland China, where the game has been most popular.
Moving back to traditional PC esports titles, Apex Legends claimed the final spot of this ranking with 567.6K peak viewers recorded for the ALGS: 2024 Split 1 Playoffs. This Split 1 Playoffs received slightly higher peak viewership compared to the 2023 iteration of the event, but it is far too early in the year to say if Apex Legends’ viewership will end the year on a high or a low note.
Most Popular Tournaments of May 2024, English-Language Viewers Only
Looking exclusively at English-language audiences, the Mid-Season Invitational 2024 continues to lead the way, but this time thanks to a different match. Instead of the lower bracket final, English viewership reached its peak of 610.5K viewers in May thanks to G2 Esports’ playoffs match against T1. G2 Esports is one of the most historic League of Legends esports organizations in the EMEA region, and their games carry the weight of Europe’s viewership behind them.
The Apex Legends Global Series was far higher up this ranking, likely due to North American audiences. The esports title received significant support from American fans, and this managed to boost the game far above any of the mobile gaming titles in the previous graphic, and even above Valorant.
Still considering North American viewership, the Call of Duty League 2024: Stage 3 Major received 3rd place in this ranking with 238.2K PV. Call of Duty esports is mostly famous within North America, but viewership is not on an upward trend. Compared to the 2023 Major tournaments, viewership is down, and compared to both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 Majors of 2024, viewership has not seen growth.
In Valorant, the VCT 2024: Americas League - Stage 1 was actually more popular than the currently ongoing VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai tournament. Masters Shanghai has received far less viewership than the Masters Madrid event, which set a new viewership record for Valorant, especially from American audiences. North America’s favorite Valorant team, Sentinels, is not in attendance for the current Masters tournament, and this has led to English viewership falling for the international LAN: although Asian demographics have seen considerable growth in viewership for the event.
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Esports Charts PRO users gain access to advanced tournament statistics, a viewership comparison tool, and advanced data in our articles as well as exclusive PRO pieces. PRO users can examine the most popular esports events of May 2024 for French viewership.
French Viewership
France’s esport scene has been dominated by content-creator teams in recent years. These teams have the support of some of France’s most popular and powerful creators behind them, leading to high viewership for matches. Of course, many of the month’s top events featured these teams, although the most popular event of the month did not.
French viewership also highlighted two games we have not yet seen in this article. Esports viewership is not only divided by language in terms of which teams viewers support, but also which esports titles these fans are interested in the first place.
Twitch Viewership Statistics
Looking at Twitch viewership statistics exclusively, Caedrel was the most popular esports broadcaster for May. The Fnatic-affiliated broadcaster for this year’s League of Legends esports scene reached 211.6K PV for his coverage of the MSI 2024 grand final. The official Riotgames Twitch channel also received 157K PV for the same match, but community casters continue to edge out official broadcasters as the most popular way to watch the game for many fans.
French content creator ZeratoR received 181.2K PV for his coverage of the VCT 2024: EMEA League - Stage 1. Unlike other French content creators whose coverage of esports is dependent on their own esports teams, ZeratoR reached his peak viewership while covering the grand final of the stage, which featured two teams ZeratoR is not connected.
The dota2_paragon_ru Twitch channel received 156.9K PV for its coverage of the PGL Wallachai Season 1, a new $1,000,000 tournament hosted by PGL. The grand final of the event featured Russian esports organization Team Spirit, so it is no wonder that a Russian-language Twitch channel would receive such high viewership for the match.
Finally, kato_junichi0817 received 111.3K PV for his coverage of the Valorant Challengers Japan 2024: Split 2. The event is still currently ongoing, but he received his peak for his coverage of FENNEL’s match against Murash Gaming: the league’s two most popular teams. Murash Gaming was founded by Kato Junichi, so it is no wonder that his viewership for the event reached such a considerable peak; this broadcast was his second most popular Valorant stream ever on his channel.