As 2019 comes to a close, League of Legends fans can finally say that the streaming crown has returned home. The popular MOBA has retaken the title of most-watched game on Twitch with 990 million hours watched this year, according to StreamElements and stat tracker Arsenal.gg.
Last year, Fortnite stunned the streaming world when it racked up an astonishing one billion hours watched on Twitch in 2018. Granted, last year was when the third-person shooter took off. Popular Fortnite streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins had a record-breaking stream with popular rapper Drake, Travis Scott, and pro NFL player JuJu Smith-Schuster, helping boost the game to the top spot on Twitch.
This single stream was able to bring in over 600,000 viewers alone, which at the time, set a new record on Twitch for the most concurrent viewers on an individual channel. It was the golden age for Fortnite players across the world and on the streaming platform as several personalities used the game to jump up in popularity.
In 2019, however, the Fortnite craze died down. The game was still incredibly popular, but it wasn’t as frenzied as it was in its opening year. Combined with Ninja’s decision to switch streaming platforms to Mixer, Fortnite‘s viewership numbers declined heavily—the game saw its hours watched drop by 28 percent compared to last year.
Meanwhile, League continued to flourish and grow, with more talented players joining various pro leagues and the introduction of new game modes like Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra. Each regional league—like Europe’s LEC, Korea’s LCK, and North America’s LCS—all presented new, exciting storylines that everyone can get invested into. As a result, the game saw an increase of seven percent in hours watched in 2019.
There are so many new things happening in the League universe, from new champions, new teams, and streamers who have stepped up their content to attract more and more viewers to the game. With more League-based games coming out next year—including two new games by Riot’s newest publishing label, Riot Forge—you can bet that League will not slow down on Twitch any time soon.
