It might be time for all of us to start taking eSports a little bit more seriously. Riot Games, the bright minds behind the wildly popular League of Legends, has announced the viewership numbers for its Season 3 World Championship Finals event – which culminated with a match between South Korea's SK Telecom T1 and China's Royal Club. Along thousands of people packed into the sold out Staples Center, more than 32 million people watched the event via online streaming, and across TV stations in China, Korea, and "other countries." Not too bad for a PC game.
The peak was around eight times greater than what was seen during last year’s show, making it the most watched eSports event of all time. Reddit General Manager Erik Martin explained to GameSpot that the League of Legends subreddit drew more attention than the NBA Finals and Super Bowl during the Finals event, with close to 6 million views on peak days.
"League of Legends is a huge force," Martin said. "Spikes from LoL events on Reddit rival The Super Bowl, Oscars, and even national elections. What's even more amazing is that most people have never heard of it. People also used to dismiss MMA and Nascar and even basketball back in the day. They'll come around."
Apparently, people like League of Legends. Call of Duty might be one of the biggest events in the world of console gaming, but nothing is even coming close to the power of this free-to-play PC title.
