According to Esports Charts, the Mid-Season Invitational 2025 grand final played on Saturday between T1 and Gen.G peaked at 3,448,289 viewers, setting a new record not only for this year’s edition but for the entire history of the competition. This milestone marks a major success for Riot Games, which continues to see its international events reach new heights in viewership year after year, solidifying League of Legends as one of the most-watched esports in the world.

At this MSI, T1 played five best-of-five series—and those five matches were also the most-watched of the tournament, in the exact order they occurred: CTBC Flying Oyster, Bilibili Gaming, Gen.G, Anyone’s Legend, and finally Gen.G again in the grand final. T1 remains the most followed and watched team in the current League of Legends ecosystem, with each clash against Gen.G further fueling the hype around their rivalry. The grand final now stands as the most-viewed League match of the year, though it falls just short of the all-esports record, which still belongs to the MPL Indonesia Season 15 final between ONIC and RRQ Hoshi, with over 4.1 million peak viewers.

An exponential growth

Since 2017, viewership has only continued to grow. Back in 2017 and 2018, it didn’t even break the one million mark. Then came the COVID-19 era, and esports exploded. By 2021, the peak viewership had doubled, along with total hours watched. Over two million people tuned in to watch the 2022 final, marking T1’s big return to the international stage against Royal Never Give Up. This year’s edition has now surpassed the 3 million mark. While the MSI stands as one of the biggest esports events in the world, it remains a tier below the numbers consistently reached by Worlds every year.

Worlds operate on an entirely different level. Over 6.8 million people watched the 2024 grand final between T1 and BLG, and more than 6.4 million tuned in for T1 vs. Weibo Gaming in 2023. Since 2022, Worlds has consistently been the most-watched esports event across all titles. These numbers are also largely driven by the narrative Riot Games builds around its flagship tournament—often at the expense of other events. This year, Worlds will return to China for the first time since 2020, though it was without a live audience. The last time the tournament was held in front of a Chinese crowd dates back to 2017, with the iconic final between SKT T1 and Samsung Galaxy.