Nyhederne League of Legends > League of Legends: JDG beats BLG in MSI 2023 final with lowest viewership since 2018.
League of Legends: JDG beats BLG in MSI 2023 final with lowest viewership since 2018.
League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational Final Settles for Lowest Viewership Since 2018
Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends has come and gone. Throughout the tournament, numerous teams fought for ultimate dominance, with the two Chinese teams making it to the grand final. The rival Chinese teams JDG and BLG faced off in the grand final, where JDG emerged victorious with a 3-1 win and took home the championship.
After the dust settled, players noticed that the viewership for the MSI 2023 grand final was quite low. Some investigations resulted in the discovery that MSI 2023’s grand final viewership was the lowest it has been in some years, only beating the viewership of 2018.
MSI 2023’s Grand Final Viewership
According to a Reddit post, MSI 2023’s final had a peak viewership of 1.1 million according to Esports Charts. This is a significant drop compared to previous Mid-Season Invitations, whose grand finals saw 2.2 million and 1.8 million viewers in 2022 and 2021, respectively.
MSI 2023’s most viewed match in the tournament was on day 9, where JDG faced T1 during the bracket stage, where JDG was able to snatch a 3-2 triumph over the Korean team.
A Redditor stated that the reason for the lower than normal viewership was due to the teams’ long-standing rivalry, where JDG had always beaten BLG, resulting in less hype for the final. It is worth noting that Esports Charts is not able to count Chinese viewership, which could have easily painted the numbers in a more positive light. But according to a Twitter comment, even the Chinese viewership was lower for the final, where their most viewed match was between LCK and LPL.
It is uncertain whether this means anything for League esports as a whole, where viewership seems to be healthy across the board throughout the tournament. Only time will tell if this could be an indicator for something else.
