Another event of the media football league Kings League circuit — Kings Cup 2023 — featuring men's teams, concluded on October 14. Spanish streamer Ibai, former Barcelona defender Gerard Pique, and other league members once again organized a real holiday for all football enthusiasts, the event attracted over 685K Peak Viewers and provided the audience with a lot of emotions.
The format of the Kings Cup was slightly different from previous seasons of the Kings League. Instead of having one large group, the organizers divided the participants into two groups, significantly reducing the airtime. The decisive match of the Kings Cup 2023 took place at La Rosaleda Stadium in Malaga, in front of 30K live spectators. In the battle for the championship title, Ultimate Móstoles crushed Los Troncos FC with a score of 8:1.
Keeping with the league's spirit, the Kings Cup final was held with rules being very different from ordinary football. For example, sides used incomplete lineups, such as 2 vs. 2; goals scored in the last minutes were worth two points, and players who broke the rules were substituted off the field for a short while rather than being punished until the end of the match.
All in all, the decisive game proved to be highly peculiar and intriguing. There's no denying that the viewers were entertained by the organizers and participants. There were several spectacular goals, contentious calls made by the referees, and a near brawl between the sides near the end of the game. This trophy marks Ultimate Móstoles' debut title in the media football competition: El Barrio and xBuyer Team have won the first two splits.
Kings Cup 2023 viewership results
In total, Kings Cup 2023 matches accumulated 9.5 million Hours Watched, and drew 212.7K Average Viewers. The Grand Final between Ultimate Móstoles and Los Troncos FC, which had 685.6K Peak Viewers, became the most popular match of the tournament. The statistics don’t include those who watched the match live in the stadium.
The Kings Cup 2023 games were streamed on both official league channels and the personal channels of popular Spanish-speaking streamers, who are also presidents of participating clubs. Among them were ibai, rivers_gg, TheGrefg, Juans Guarnizo, DjMaRiiO, and others. The broadcasts were available on three platforms: Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.
The Kings Cup had the lowest audience reach among all the men's tournaments played in the Kings League. Compared to the second season, the Average Viewers number on streams decreased by 45%, and the Peak Viewers number decreased by twice as much. Due to the change in format, Kings Cup had half the amount of airtime, which greatly affected the total Hours Watched of the entire tournament.
There are also other reasons for the low statistics compared to previous Kings League tournaments. One of them is the composition of the finalists. Usually, the league's streaming partners, who act as club presidents, only cover matches involving their own teams. These streamers have different audience reach, so from the organizers' perspective, they prefer to see specific teams with more prominent streamer presidents in the finals. Perhaps if teams of ibai or rivers_gg were playing in the finals, taking into account their broadcasts, the viewership results of the tournament would have been higher. It's worth noting that the most popular match of the first season was the game between Porcinos FC (Ibai's team) and PIO FC (Rivers' team) — their clash in the Group Stage was watched by over 2.1 million Peak Viewers. So far, that's the league's record.
The autumn esports season's strict schedule is another important factor. The 2023 World Championship (League of Legends) and The International 2023 (Dota 2) are two of the biggest competitions in the esports world and they coincided with the Kings Cup finals. It is clear that some part of the audience was drawn to these events.
Kings League solidified itself as a primary sporting event in streaming this year. Ibai and Pique have created a captivating format that draws thousands of people to their displays and, most crucially, can be expanded to other areas. Soon, Kings League organizers will host a season in Mexico with clubs from Latin America. The presidents of these teams will be former professional football players as well as prominent local streamers from the area.
Read also: Chicharito, ElSpreen, Coscu and others — who can become team presidents in Kings League LATAM?
