Esports Charts compiled the top most viewed disciplines in 2022 and compared their audience coverage with last year's figures. As it turned out, the distance between Valorant and CS: GO is gradually decreasing, and the most popular mobile title has sunk by as much as 14%," so the final event of the season takes place in 2023.
On the fifth line of the rating was the team shooter Valorant from riot Games, which scored 283.4 million hours of viewing - this is 32.9% more than it had in 2021. The main turret of last season was VALORANT Champions 2022. Then in Istanbul it was possible to set a discipline record for peak online broadcasts, which exceeded 1.5 million viewers. For comparison, during VALORANT Champions 2021, the same figure was at the level of 1.09 million people.
2023 promises to be even more optimistic for Valorant. Riot Games will finally launch three regional partner leagues in America, Europe and Asia, which will have to structure the professional scene and make it more convenient for both teams and spectators.
Donta 2 stopped one step away from getting into the top 3 of the ranking. Valve's MOBA gained 313.6 million hours of viewing, which is almost 10% less than last year's result. In general, 2022 cannot be called a successful year for the discipline. The International 2022 main tournament of the season - The International <> - for the first time in ten years failed to update the records for the prize pool and audience coverage.
Peak online at The International 2022 was "only" 1.7 million viewers. For any other discipline, this would be a fantastic figure, but Dota 2 fans probably remember that the last World Cup simultaneously gathered more than 2.7 million people at the screens. Despite the obvious reduction in metrics, the game still ranks high in the top of the most viewed esports disciplines.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang became the most popular mobile discipline in 2022 despite a 14.4% drop in the number of viewing hours. In total, the title's broadcasts gained 331.4 million hours of viewing over the past 12 months.
The highest peak online at Mobile Legends tournaments in 2022 was 2.8 million viewers at a time. This value was recorded during the match between EVOS. Legends and RRQ Hoshi as part of MPL Indonesia Season 9. The mark of 2 million viewers was also overcome by the MLBB Southeast Asia Cup 2022 (2.8 million), MPL Indonesia Season 10 (2.3 million) and 31st Southeast Asian Games ML:BB (2.2 million).
The performance of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang could be much higher, but it is important to note that the world championship, which is rightly considered the main event in the discipline, was not included in the standings at the end of 2022. The fact is that the M3 World Championship was held in December 2021, and the M4 World Championship was postponed to January 2023. As a result, 2022 turned out to be somewhat "lean".
CS:GO esports matches in 2022 scored 448.4 million hours of viewing, which is 8.5% more than last year. At the same time, it was the shooter from Valve that turned out to be the leader in airtime (14.4 thousand hours) among other disciplines in the top.
The most popular CS:GO tournament in 2022 was the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 - the grand final of the Belgian major between Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan was simultaneously watched by 2.1 million viewers. This is the second indicator in the history of the discipline after PGL Major Stockholm 2021 (2.7 million viewers at the peak).
The past year has been pretty good for the CS:GO esports scene. It is important to note that not only majors, but also other major tournaments like IEM Cologne 2022 and IEM Katowice 2022 gathered a large audience.
The title of the most popular eSports discipline in 2022 goes to League of Legends. In total, riot Games' iconic MOBA tournaments garnered 617 million watch hours, down 7% from 2021.
The most popular LoL tournament last year was the 2022 World Championship, during which it was possible to set a new discipline record for peak online. It happened during the grand final between T1 and DRX, which attracted more than 5.1 million viewers to the screens at a time. For comparison, during the last World Cup, the peak online exceeded 4 million viewers.
2022 was also a record year for the international Mid-Season Invitational series, the grand final of which in May gained more than 2.1 million viewers at its peak. By the way, this is more than it was during the World Championships in 2017 and 2018.
Special mention should be made of the Korean regional league LCK. In terms of total viewing hours, it was second only to MPL. At the same time, each of the two splits (spring and summer) showed a one-time online to more than 1.3 million viewers.