Having celebrities on-stream can play a big role in helping the channel and broadcast reach new audiences and see an upward trend in viewership. Having someone of the ilk and the popularity of Ronaldinho means going even further than mere numbers, and that is what happened to the Kings League over the last few days.
It is no secret that Ronaldinho is one of the most-loved footballers ever; he might even be the greatest player ever for many. The Brazilian was recently announced as joining Porcinos FC as its 12th player by the team’s President, Ibai Llanos — one of the most popular Spanish streamers today — in a move that took everyone by surprise. It also meant a huge jump in the viewership numbers for the Kings League’s streaming channels, including Twitch and YouTube.
For those unaware, the Kings League, established in 2022 by Gerard Piqué, is a seven-a-side tournament with 12 teams, where each side can bring in a 12th player every match. This slot usually ends up being handed over to celebrities and former footballers, with the likes of Sergio ‘Kun’ Aguero, Joan Capdevila, and Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez having appeared as 12th men. The competition began at the beginning of January and will go on till the end of March.
Ronaldinho’s joining announcement and subsequent appearance in the league during matchday eight as a member of Ibai’s team led to the viewership stats spiking. Most astonishing was that the Concurrent Viewers count rose by 244% from 858.8K during the previous gameweek to 2.1 million a week later, i.e, Sunday, February 26, 2023.
When it comes to the most watched channels during Ronaldinho’s time on the field, the most popular one was the official Kings League Twitch handle with 906K Peak Viewers, followed by its official Tik Tok account with 430K.
The next best handle in terms of concurrent viewers was Ibai’s Twitch (403K), followed by the official Kings League YouTube channel (288K). Rounding off the top five was the rivers_gg Twitch handle (163K), run by popular Spanish streamer Samantha Rivera, most popular for her Just Chatting and Sports content.
The Kings League has proven to be a novel concept among football lovers, with its unique rules taking the world by storm, especially the 12-man one. It remains to be seen which other legendary name Piqué and the likes of Ibai sign up in the future to bring more eyeballs to the fledgling product.
