As we have outlined in our pieces covering the livestreaming industry throughout Q2, gaming and specifically esports content are wildly popular across various platforms. YouTube Gaming’s portion of YouTube Live’s watch time continues to grow, and the most popular content on the platform is consistently esports-related content.
In this piece, Streams Charts will have a look at some of the top-performing esports channels in livestreaming. This can either refer to official channels of tournament organizers, esports broadcasting organizations, or even personal Twitch streamers who are dedicated to covering esports content.
Most Watched Esports Channels, Q2 2024
Standing at the top of the industry, the MPL Indonesia YouTube Channel was the most-watched esports channel of the quarter, with 27.04M Hours Watched. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, a mobile MOBA title, is one of the world’s leading esports, although one that often goes under the radar of Western esports fans. Most impressively, the MPL Indonesia account achieved this with only 431 hours of Airtime, compared to accounts which are live 24/7 broadcasting replays of matches with roughly 2K hours of Airtime for the quarter.
Mobile gaming continued to show its progress and growth through Q2, and many channels focusing specifically on mobile gaming content made this top 10. The mpl.id.official TikTok account even generated 14.63M HW, making it the only TikTok account to achieve such high live viewership for the quarter.
In second place, the LCK YouTube channel earned 23.3M Hours Watched, thanks to Korean fans’ undying passion for League of Legends. The League of Legends Champions Korea circuit is the esports’ largest and most popular regional league, and viewership for the esports title continues to stay strong. The LCK’s YouTube channel recorded one of its most-watched and most popular broadcasts ever in April of this year, when titans Gen.G and T1 clashed.
Liên Quân Mobile eSports-Garena snagged third-place with 16.13M HW thanks to their Garena Liên Quân Mobile coverage. The title is the Vietnamese release of Honor of Kings, a Chinese title which was also released internationally as Arena of Valor. Adding to the strength of mobile gaming esports, the channel represents the strong Vietnamese audience for mobile gaming titles, which is usually underrepresented in viewership for other mobile gaming titles like ML:BB.
Next up, three Twitch channels back to back. Leading the way, the French broadcasting organization otplol_ received 12.49M HW for their League of Legends esports coverage. The account doesn’t only cover European matches, but is also the host of French-language broadcasts for international League of Legends esports.
ESLCS was the first Counter-Strike-focused account of this ranking, having earned 11.48M Hours Watched. The Germany-based organization covers all ESL-affiliated events throughout the Counter-Strike industry, and came out just ahead of Brazilian broadcaster Gaules. Gaules is Counter-Strike’s most popular community caster, and he is effectively the de facto official Brazilian broadcast for many events. His 10.71M HW for the quarter reflects the viewership of his coverage of esports matches, not his entire channel.
KRAFTON INDIA ESPORTS is the official Indian broadcaster for Battlegrounds Mobile India esports matches. The account broadcasts in many different Indian languages, as well as English, although Hindi-language broadcasts receive by far the most viewership. In total, the account received 10.49M Hours Watched for the quarter.
Next, dota2_paragon_ru is the official Twitch account for Paragon Events, a tournament organizer and broadcasting studio based out of Kazakhstan. The organizer hasn’t run any events in 2024 so far, but their Russian-language broadcasts of Dota 2 esports are particularly popular. In Q2 of 2024, the account received 9.66M HW, just about securing ninth-place here.
Finally, Vietnam Championship Series - LMHT is the official YouTube channel for the Vietnam Championship Series, the country’s regional League of Legends circuit. The VCS is one of the healthiest and fastest-growing League of Legends regional circuits, according to viewership, and it cemented the extreme growth of its viewership by placing in the final spot of our Q2 top 10.
Most Watched Esports Channels on Twitch, Q2 2024
Moving across to Twitch specific channels, the top four channels are ones we have already looked at. Aside from these, many different esports disciplines were represented in this ranking, with Riot Games leading the way. Although Riot has contributed both League of Legends and Valorant to the esports scene, only the former was represented on their Twitch channel.
Their account generated 5.71M HW, thanks to their coverage of the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational, one of the most important League of Legends events of the year. On the other side of Riot’s esports spectrum, VALORANT_jpn was the sixth-most-watched Twitch esports channel of the quarter. Although Japanese Valorant teams are not the most competitively successful, their fans continue to support and generate massive viewership for the title. The account generated 5.59M Hours Watched, more than any other Valorant-focused esports channel.
Following the Japanese Valorant account, PGL_Dota2 and ESL_DOTA2 finished in the next two spots, with 4.99M HW and 4.85M HW, respectively. The two accounts represent English-language viewership for Dota 2 events, with both tournament organizers and broadcasters standing at the forefront of the esports’ viewership. The two accounts are not necessarily competitors, as are usually broadcasting events they are involved in, and therefore do not both broadcast the same events.
Finishing our Twitch rankings with two new esports titles, the official Rainbow6 account received 4.69M Hours Watched, and the ow_esports account 4.54M HW. These two esports titles have a much more prominent North American audience than something like League of Legends, hence being based on Twitch.
Most Watched Esports Channels on YouTube Gaming, Q2 2024
Shifting to YouTube Live, specifically the YouTube Gaming section, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang was by far livestreaming’s favourite esports discipline, and the top channels of the platform reflect this. In general, viewership on YouTube Gaming was focused more on mobile gaming content, and the Mobile Legends : Bang Bang Indonesia ranked as the sixth-most-watched YouTube Gaming channel of Q2 thanks to this.
The Indonesian mobile gaming esports broadcaster received 9.26M Hours Watched, outperforming even the LCK 라이브 channel in the same quarter, which is the Vietnamese-language broadcaster for the Korean League of Legends circuit. Vietnamese viewers gave the account 7.36M Hours Watched, making it the second-most-popular esports of the quarter for Vietnamese fans, according to this ranking.
Following these two, ESL Counter-Strike was the first YouTube Gaming account we have looked at in this ranking which aims for a Western audience. The Counter-Strike account received 6.03M HW, outperforming the only other Western competitor here: LoL Esports. The League of Legends account received 5.47M HW, falling far behind the LCK channels here, and receiving less viewership than Riot Games’ Twitch account.
Representing another Southeast Asian country, Garena RoV Thailand received 5.78M Hours Watched for their broadcasts of Realm of Valor esports. Realm of Valor is the Thai release of Arena of Valor, whose Vietnamese release Liên Quân received 16.13M HW. The Thai account is markedly less popular than the Vietnamese one, highlighting the title’s popularity within Vietnam.
