100 million watched China win second League of Legends championship

An estimated 104 million fans in China and 3.7 million overseas fans watched China get crowned king in League of Legends this year when FunPlus Phoenix swept European team G2 in three championship games, according to analytics firm Esports Charts.

While more than 100 million people streaming an esports tournament might sound like an incredible number, it’s half the number of viewers from last year’s final, when Invictus Gaming became the first Chinese team to qualify and win the League of Legends World Championship. Chinese state media reported that 200 million people watched Invictus Gaming make history.

Outside of China, the FunPlus Phoenix and G2 series was significantly more popular than last year, when only 2 million global viewers tuned in for the finals. But this year’s finals still fell short of breaking the record set by the semi-finals series this year between South Korea’s SKT and G2, which had nearly 4 million viewers outside China. 

The success of another Chinese League of Legends team has been especially big on university campuses across the country. Videos of college students celebrating in dormitories have been widely circulating online and Weibo topics related to the win have gone viral.