The latest data out of market research company Newzoo, with numbers compiled by Rod “Slasher” Breslau, has provided the top 10 most viewed esports in 2018. The data includes hours watched on YouTube and Twitch.

The popular MOBA League of Legends holds the crown at 240 million hours thus far in 2018 while first-person shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive slides in 28 million below at 212 million hours.

Rounding out the top 5 is DOTA 2, Overwatch, and Hearthstone at 180, 96, and 43 million hours respectively. Giving both Valve and Blizzard two games in the top five. Blizzard adds two more in sixth and seventh with Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft 2.

League of Legends – 240 million hours Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – 212 million hours DOTA 2 – 180 million hours Overwatch – 96 million hours Hearthstone – 43 million hours Heroes of the Storm – 19.5 million hours StarCraft 2 – 17.5 million hours Rainbow Six Siege – 14.5 million hours PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – 14 million hours Rocket League – 13 million hours

We know many will wonder where Fortnite is on this list as it’s been at the top of Twitch and YouTube for quite some time. The answer lies in the parameters for the data. Newzoo states that “esports hours consists of content from professionally organized esports competitions and does not include individual (pro-player) streams.”

Director of Operations at MLG, Adam Apicella disagrees with the data, however, stating this “this is wrong,” and that the Call of Duty World League numbers were double the 9.5 million allotted to them alone, not including other events.

This is wrong. We had more than double this for CWL alone. Also not sure if the totals include VOD on YT per your YT reference, but that would add a lot as well. — Adam Apicella (@MrAdamAp) October 4, 2018

There has been no official word from Newzoo in response to Acipella’s claims.

(Photo courtesy of ESL)