Media leagues have become a real trend in the entertainment industry in recent years. Streams Charts delves into the phenomenon of media league popularity, highlighting the top streamers and footballers participating in these leagues, as well as the most popular media leagues among viewers.
What are Media Leagues?
Media leagues are a type of competition where various influencers participate, including popular bloggers, streamers, showbiz stars, musicians, athletes, and more. They or their teams compete in various sports or video games, but the main goal isn't necessarily victory or determining a champion, but rather creating entertainment for viewers.
The predecessors of modern media leagues can be traced back to old game shows like the French "Intervilles" and the Italian "Campanile sera," where representatives from different cities competed against each other in a series of physical challenges and skill games on land, water, and in the air. These shows were broadcast locally as entertainment programs. Later on, many similar leagues appeared in different countries. For instance, in the Russian show "Bolshie Gonki," teams from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the USA, France, and other countries participated, consisting of artists, TV presenters, musicians, and athletes.
With the rise of live streaming and social media, modern media leagues have evolved significantly compared to their television counterparts. Nowadays, they predominantly feature popular streamers and bloggers rather than TV presenters and musicians. Football or esports disciplines like Counter-Strike or Dota 2 are the battlegrounds for these competitions.
Media leagues serve as a valuable tool for attracting new audiences. Upon reaching a certain number of subscribers, any streamer or blogger eventually 'hits a ceiling' of media exposure where their popularity stops growing. In such cases, they have to think outside the box and seek a new audience elsewhere, such as among fans and followers of other content creators. This is why streamers and bloggers collaborate, release joint videos and podcasts, appear on each other's broadcasts, and so on. Media leagues serve as another form of collaboration and audience exchange but in a competitive format.
Another crucial factor of media leagues is the popularity of the participants. High media exposure ensures that the league will attract a certain (sufficiently high) audience reach, making such projects very appealing to potential sponsors. With the influx of sponsorship money, influencers have yet another significant reason to participate in media leagues and similar activities.
Media leagues excel at creating hype, which even non-specialized media readily pick up. It's rare to see professional athletes and streamers playing Counter-Strike or football against each other, especially for substantial sums of money. Such stories are interesting to both readers of news portals and viewers of television channels.
Football as a main game for media leagues
The peak of popularity for esports media leagues came during the COVID-19 pandemic. Streamers and bloggers couldn't compete in traditional sports like football or streetball, so they turned to tournaments in games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2. Professional athletes, unable to perform in stadiums due to lockdowns, often joined these events.
After the pandemic, a reverse trend emerged as media leagues gradually transitioned from online to offline, with football fields becoming the main venue for influencer competitions. The choice of football isn't random; it's the most popular sport worldwide, with a massive fan base. Additionally, football stars who have retired but still want to stay in the spotlight enthusiastically embraced the idea of football media leagues. This is particularly evident in the star-studded guest lists of events like Kings League.
League organizers kept the basics but tweaked the rules slightly to make their football matches more convenient and entertaining to watch. Nowadays, when media leagues are mentioned, football immediately comes to mind, although they originally began with esports games.
New football rules in media leagues
The main goal of a media league is to entertain the audience. That's why some rules here significantly differ from those of real football. Firstly, teams in media leagues field not 11 players but 6 or 7 (with exceptions, but usually due to the smaller field size). Secondly, matches in media leagues are much shorter, allowing for multiple games to be played in a day: for example, it could be two halves of 20 minutes each or three halves of 15 minutes each.
Media leagues also feature more exotic rules. For example, in addition to traditional yellow and red cards, referees can issue... orange, green, white: in Italy's GOA7 League, they even use 8 different cards! These cards can temporarily remove a player from the field or require them to perform a certain action before returning to the match. The number of substitutions for coaches is usually unlimited.
Some media leagues use balls of different colors. For instance, in one season of the Football Media League, a team would earn two points by scoring a goal with a red ball instead of a white one. In the Kings League, arcade rules are employed: teams can choose special "abilities" before matches, which they can use at any moment during the game. For example, they might be able to take an unplanned penalty kick or temporarily switch the game to a 3vs3 format.
Media leagues also typically don't use classical penalties "from the spot". Instead, the player taking the shot faces off one-on-one against the goalkeeper — similar to ice hockey shootouts. In the German Baller League, players take turns shooting from midfield until one of them scores a goal. These are just a few examples of the rules, and each media league has its peculiarities, which can also change from season to season. The only constant is the desire to entertain the audience.
Most Popular Media Leagues
Kings League
The flagship among football media leagues in live streaming is currently the Spanish Kings League. It became the main phenomenon in the sports sector of Twitch in 2023, attracting over 2.1 million Peak Viewers during the first season. The Kings League emerged as a collaboration between popular Spanish streamers and former professional footballers. The league's president is former Spanish national team defender Gerard Piqué, with ambassadors and team managers including Iker Casillas, Sergio Agüero, as well as huge streamers like ibai, Rivers_gg, DjMaRiiO, and TheGrefg. The popularity of the Kings League is largely because the mentioned ambassadors cover the matches on their channels and social media. Additionally, football stars like Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko sometimes play in Kings League, bringing extra attention to the competition.
After a successful first season, the Kings League began to scale up. Organizers launched the women's division (Queens League) and held the children's tournament (Prince Cup). In October 2023, the launch of Kings League Americas was officially announced, featuring popular streamers from Latin America like Westcol, Castro, and ElZeein.
In May-June, the World Cup under the Kings League brand will take place, where national teams from different countries will compete. Former professional footballers Francesco Totti, Falcao, Rio Ferdinand, and Mario Götze have confirmed their participation as ambassadors. Zlatan Ibrahimovic became the president of the Kings League World Cup. Overall, judging by the level of invited stars, one can understand why Kings League is considered the flagship among football media leagues.
Baller League
Baller League is the German equivalent of the Spanish Kings League, inheriting many of its features. The league is presided over by German national team footballers Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski, while ambassadors and team managers include Alisha Lehmann, Kevin Prince Boateng, and Christoph Kramer, as well as popular streamers such as Trymacs, MontanaBlack88, TheRealKnossi.
Baller League boasts high-quality production and attracted a significant number of sponsors right from its inaugural season. While the German league falls behind Kings League in terms of viewership numbers, it targets a more local audience. It's unknown yet whether Baller League will expand beyond its region like Kings League did, but it definitely may complement the traditional Bundesliga, providing German viewers with entertainment during the offseason.
GOA7 League
GOA7 League is Italy's media football league. Structurally, it resembles Kings League and Baller League, but with a focus on a different region. GOA7 League also has several unique features that set it apart from other leagues. Firstly, team ambassadors aren't just popular Twitch streamers but also influencers from Instagram and TikTok, creators of football channels on YouTube, and even musical performers. Among them are CRSPERA, Sergej GK, KingAsh, mirkof93, ZW JACKSON, and other content creators.
Another distinctive feature of GOA7 League is its participant composition. Typically, media leagues feature amateur footballers, with influencers serving only as ambassadors and team managers. However, GOA7 League adopts a mixed approach: each team must include several playing influencers, active footballers from professional clubs (usually from the lower divisions of the Italian league, Serie C/D, etc.), and aspiring footballers who undergo a preliminary selection in the draft.
Football Media League
Football Media League (FML) is a Russian football media league that emerged in 2022. Essentially, this league is an attempt to redefine football and move away from the classic Russian Premier League format. Both amateurs and semi-professional footballers participate in FML, with popular bloggers, comedians, singers, and other showbiz figures serving as ambassadors and team managers.
An intriguing aspect of FML is that matches take place in various stadiums, not only in Russia but also in Belarus. Seasonal games are streamed on the league's official YouTube channel, while decisive matches are broadcast on television.
Esports examples of media leagues
Among the esports media leagues, Russian Streamers Battle for Dota 2 and Media ELeague for Counter-Strike stand out, featuring popular streamers and former professional players. Both leagues were sponsored by betting companies and received extensive coverage on Twitch and YouTube. Interestingly, unlike football leagues, esports media leagues rarely change their rules, and their matches proceed similarly to regular professional tournaments.
