Each year, Riot Games gathers the best teams from around the world together for a multi-week tournament, the League of Legends World Championship. The entire year of competition for the developer’s MOBA is designed as a lead-up to this single event. Not only is it seen as the pinnacle of competitive play for the game, it also brings more visibility to sponsors than any other event on the League of Legends calendar

So far, the World Championship has generated significantly more viewership than that of the regular season. The official Riot Games Twitch channel has broadcast every week of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), the professional league for North America and Europe. Average concurrent viewership (avg CCV) for the Summer Split peaked in the opening week at 80.95K, though most weeks hovered around 45K. It should be noted that the LCS is broadcast across multiple channels and platforms including YouTube and ESPN+.

Friday’s broadcast of the World Championship, which is being held in South Korea, reached an avg CCV of 129.41K. On just the Riot Games channel alone, the World Championship has accumulated more than 10M hours watched since the play-in stage began on Oct. 1.

Not only do these viewership numbers emphasize the importance of high stakes international competition for esports, but they also highlight the value of the World Championship for sponsors.

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Riot made headlines last month with the announcement of a landmark sponsorship deal with Mastercard. The partnership will include a variety of activations across multiple years, but is notably centered around the three major international events on the League of Legends calendar: the Mid-Season Invitational, the All-Star Event, and the World Championship. Mastercard has placed the emphasis of its activations on the events which draw the most viewers.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Team Liquid’s jersey sponsors will receive hundreds of thousands of extra impressions.[/perfectpullquote]

The viewership difference between the World Championship and LCS regular season also shows the importance for teams in qualifying for the World Championship. While Cloud9 , Team Liquid , and 100 Thieves are competing in South Korea, their North American peers like Team SoloMid are at home waiting for the next season to begin. Team SoloMid’s League of Legends team will not be seen on a tournament broadcast again this year.

Meanwhile, Team Liquid’s jersey sponsors will receive hundreds of thousands of extra impressions (potentially millions if they go deep in the tournament) by being one of the three teams in their region to qualify for the World Championship.

In any sport, competitive performance plays a role in driving value for brands. But in an esport where jerseys are covered in brand logos, and only a select few teams make it to the tournament with the most viewers, success on the field becomes that much more critical.