The 2021 World Championship was successfully completed after a journey that was not an easy one. Speaking of the global epidemic and the Delta variant, the championship tour, which will take place in more than one city in China, was unfortunately played without an audience in Reykjavik, Iceland. With less than two months to make changes to the Opening Ceremony as well, Riot Games managed to record a record-breaking year with hours of work.
The 2021 World Championship, which started with the qualifying phase on October 5, hosted exciting and competitive struggles. Thanks to the exciting competition, the 2021 Worlds became the highest-rated Worlds in the western hemisphere so far in terms of qualifiers and group stages.
In the 2021 World Championship, where 121 matches were played, Silver Scrapes were played four times until the end of the qualifying phase. We witnessed five matches played in the World Championship Final, which took place between LCK’s DWG KIA and LPL’s first-time World Championship Finalist Edward Gaming. It was the first five-game World Championship Final series since 2016 and the second in tournament history.
According to data collected and verified by StreamHatchet, the average viewership per minute of the World Championship Final reached 30,604,225, 32.82% above the previous record of the 2020 final. It is also 60% compared to 2020, with the highest concurrent viewers of 72,860,742. An increase of 33 was captured and the total watch time reached 282,638,879. The total watch time of the 2021 World Championship is 1, 084, 991, 999.
The World Championship Final, which started with the Opening Ceremony presented by Mastercard, was broadcast on 34 platforms by 19 servers in 18 languages. At the show, Grammy-winning Imagine Dragons, PVRIS, Bea Miller, JID, and Denzel Curry performed in a short film about an Arcane-themed journey through Runeterra’s cities of Piltover and Zaun.
Edward Gaming’s mid laner Lee “Scout” Ye-chan has been named OPPO MVP of the 2021 World Championship for playing four different champions very successfully in five matches against DWG KIA in the final.
At the end of the tournament, for the first time in LoL Esports history, every player on the winning team won a custom-made championship ring designed by Riot Games and Mercedes-Benz.
The 2021 World Championship was held with the support and contribution of global LoL Esports partners Bose, Cisco, Mercedes-Benz, Spotify, Red Bull, Mastercard, OPPO, Louis Vuitton, Ax, Secretlab, Verizon, Prime Gaming and State Farm.