As esports continues to grow in popularity, League Of Legends, CS:GO, and Dota 2 continue to lead the pack in viewership numbers. Esports Charts, an organization devoted to providing analytics for esports development and streaming, makes the claim based on the number of esports hours tracked online.
League of Legends is the top dog by a large margin, clocking in more than 478.7 million hours watched in 2019, while both CS:GO and Dota 2 come in second and third with nearly identical figures, boasting 284.3 million and 282.2 million hours watched respectively. The next nearest title Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch, coming in at slightly over 80 million hours, and far behind either second or third place.
League of Legends continues its dominance of the esports scene, and its position at the top should not surprise anyone. 2019 saw Riot Games continue its track record of working towards improving game balance through changes to matchmaking and character reworks, as well as the addition of the newest European competitive leagues, literally adding additional content for viewers to consume.
In addition, Riot Games has been on a roll lately as they expand into genres outside their popular MOBA. Both Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra were revealed in 2019, and both look to cement the developer even further into the world of esports with the introduction of these innovative games.
Dota 2 and CS:GO are also solid titles that should remain at the top of the esports world for years to come. Both games receive constant support both in game and in their esports development, and not only are great for viewing, they are among the top of all played PC games. As of the time of this writing, CS:GO has over 800,000 current players on Steam, while Dota 2 has nearly 500,000 current players, with both games occupying the number one and two spot of games played on that platform.
The big question then is what would it take to dethrone these three games from their positions of power in the esports scene? It’s hard to say, but Blizzard is certainly not behind for a lack of trying. If anything, Overwatch has seen its creators pump massive amounts of cash and effort in a drive towards becoming the next big game, with mixed results.
The Overwatch League should be the shining beacon of this game for the future, though as fans and players have seen, Blizzard is quite apt at shooting itself in the foot when it comes to developing a global esports presence. For now, no other games appear to be within striking distance of of the top three viewed esports titles from 2019.
Source: escharts.com