The first-ever Fortnite World Cup has come and gone and honestly, we think it went better than anyone was expecting. Don't get us wrong, we weren't expecting the event to be a catastrophic failure, but in terms of the final weekend in New York City, there was very little not to like. Despite Fortnite quickly becoming the number one topic gamers love to complain about, after everything was said and done, people had no other choice but to sit back and politely applaud Epic for their efforts.
The tournament was also a massive step forward for the eSports industry. eSports is an industry that has grown exponentially in recent years, with major titles boasting large amounts of prize money and taking place all over the world. However, for the most part, the only people watching those tournaments are those in attendance and avid fans of the games being played. Yes, many of them are streamed on Twitch, YouTube, and maybe even television, but none garnered the attention that the Fortnite World Cup managed.
Don't believe us? Well, gamesindustry.biz has broken down the numbers. Between all ten weeks of the Fortnite World Cup's qualifiers, and the weekend of the finals in New York City, fans racked up an incredible 81.8 million hours watched. Those are staggering figures, and Epic has a lot of people to thank for that total. First, they should thank themselves, of course. Its official Twitch and YouTube channels averaged 700,000 hours of viewership each week for the tournament's qualifying rounds. Then, across the final weekend, Fortnite's official YouTube and Twitch channels racked up 5.6 million and 4.5 million hours respectively. Wow.
The next biggest contributors were the streamers. Despite how often they make the news, personalities such as Ninja and Tfue are bigger deals than they get credit for. During the first two qualifying weekends, Ninja's now-defunct Twitch channel generated three million hours of viewership. Those same two weekends, Fortnite's Twitch and YouTube channels combined didn't even surpass the two million threshold. Ninja's rival Tfue added 2.3 million viewers to the final total during week seven, a competition record.
As mentioned above, when you add all of those contributions together, from the start of the qualifiers to the end of the finals, viewers watched 81.8 million hours of the Fortnite World Cup. At one point during the tournament's finals, Epic revealed that it hit a peak of 2.3 million concurrent viewers, an eSports record outside of China.
But how do the Fortnite World Cup numbers stack up versus other eSports events? Somewhat unsurprisingly, in 2018, League of Legends topped the charts for the most-watched eSports event. Last year's League of Legends World Championship racked up an almost as impressive 74.3 million hours of viewership. Even more impressive is that League featured twice in the most-watched eSports event last year. Its mid-season Invitational came in 5th, clocking up 27.3 million hours.
Worryingly for Epic, none of Fortnite's events in 2018 broke the top ten for hours viewed. Dota 2 and CS:GO events both made the cut, but no Fortnite. In Epic's defense, it hadn't yet staged a tournament on the same scale as its World Cup. People often forget that Fortnite has only been around for two years. That reminder makes its World Cup viewership numbers even more impressive.
Whether you're an avid watcher of eSports or not, you might have noticed that the industry is starting to make its way onto actual sports channels on TV. Some consider this a travesty, but you can't argue with those numbers. We'd imagine they're far higher than other sports such as golf and tennis. Not the major tournaments like Wimbledon, but tennis and golf are on TV all the time, and we'd hazard to guess those lesser events aren't racking up 80 million hours plus each time.
In terms of major sporting events, Fortnite and the rest of the eSports industry has some catching up to do. It's estimated that around half of the world's population tuned in to watch last year's FIFA World Cup in Russia (3.572 billion). The final itself was watched by 1.12 billion people. We don't need to work out the hours watched to know that those numbers dwarf what the Fortnite equivalent racked up. This year's Super Bowl set some pretty impressive records too. That one game (never mind the entire football season) tallied up 560 million hours.
We're not comparing Fortnite and other eSports to the World Cup and the Super Bowl in an attempt to dwarf their accomplishments. Quite the contrary. The first-ever soccer World Cup will have been watched for far less than 81.8 million hours. Granted, it did take place in 1930, but that's not the point. Our point is that the eSports industry is growing fast, and there is definitely a place for it among established sports tournaments and leagues. Plus, if you haven't indulged in watching any of the action, we would urge you to give it a go. It's a lot more entertaining than you might think.