Riot Games says that 27 million people watched the 2014 League of Legends World Championship finals between Samsung Galaxy White and Star Horn Royal Club. That number is down from the 32 million who watched in 2013, but the number of peak concurrent viewers went up substantially, and fans who tuned in stuck with it longer as well.
Peak concurrent viewership—the number of people watching simultaneously—of the 2014 championship hit 11.2 million, up from 8.7 million in 2013, while the average viewing time grew from 42 minutes in 2013 to 67 minutes this year. The number of live viewers increased dramatically as well, apparently to more than double that the 2013 event, which took place at the 20,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles.
"It’s awesome to see fans enjoying Worlds as a community, whether it’s with 40,000 friends cheering together in Sangam Stadium, or as a group staying up late at a local viewing party halfway across the world," Riot said in a statement. "We’re honored by your passion and participation. Thank you for tuning in."
Riot said it would reveal its plans for 2015 "in the coming weeks." In the meantime, you can scratch your MOBA itch with the 2015 Spring Expansion Tournament, a one-off tourney that will grow the North American and European Union LCS lineups from eight teams each to ten, that gets underway next week.
