League of Legends continues to be the most viewed Twitch game today and has consistently held that title for the past decade. There are times when new games come out as well as exciting new expansions that temporarily dethrone League of Legends but after a few days or weeks, the hype dies down and League of Legends returns to its rightful place once again. How does this game continue to become relevant among viewers today?
The Most Viewed Twitch Games
Don’t be confused, the most viewed category on Twitch continues to be Just Chatting but if we’re talking about video games, League of Legends has held the crown among all the gaming categories consistently for the longest time. It is only recently that titles such as GTA V and VALORANT have started to overthrow the king and managed to find months where they are the most popular gaming categories on Twitch.
Many games have been at the top of the list before, and even though some successfully took down League of Legends, Riot Games always finds a way to keep the game relevant. As the most viewed Twitch game for the longest time, League of Legends seems like it will continue to be the game to watch for years to come. Let’s discover the secret to its success in the streaming world and how it will develop in the future.
How LoL Remained the Most Viewed Twitch Game Category
It’s easy to say that it’s because League of Legends is one of the most played games in the world but if that were true, games like Minecraft, Fortnite, and ROBLOX should easily overthrow all of Riot Games titles by a large margin. However, those games aren’t as popular on Twitch due to a lot of factors that we can mostly attribute to the demographic of the target audience that the platform tries to reach out to.
League of Legends has always had many of the most prominent figures and content creators in the gaming space. The gaming community is constantly exposed to clips and videos of League of Legends players in both negative and positive light. However, we all know that there is no such thing as bad exposure so even though these videos and clips paint the game and person in a bad picture, the people who see them will still get a bit intrigued with some of them eventually becoming regular viewers.
The most important reason why League of Legends is the top gaming category is that it’s an esport. There are always major events happening in League of Legends with most weeks always having a League of Legends match that the community wants to watch. The viewership of League of Legends peaks during the two highest competitive tournament periods, the Mid-Season Invitationals and the World Championships.
Despite the gameplay being repetitive, League of Legends’ viewing experience feels fresh every single match. Unlike MMORPGs or single-player games, there will never come a time when you watch the game and say “I’ve already seen how this goes already”. The biggest appeal of League of Legends is something can go wrong. That’s why everybody loves watching high-ranked players who make a lot of mistakes like Tyler1 and TheBausffs because they can laugh at their gameplay.
League of Legends as an Alternative For Sports
Up until the last decade, sports have always been the top entertainment source for people. While the popularity of sports has increased exponentially, esports has introduced itself as an alternative for people who are not interested in physical sports. In the world of esports, there isn’t a more popular title compared to League of Legends since it continues to keep its title as the most viewed Twitch game.
The future where esports replace physical sports is still nowhere in sight because the viewership is still millions of people apart. However, a lot of the younger generation aren’t forced to watch games they don’t understand or are not entertained by. Esports is slowly being accepted as a form of sports and gamers are finally able to have a safe space where they can mingle with people with the same interests whether it’s on stream or in live venues.
Is League of Legends Going to Remain on Top?
League of Legends won’t always be the most viewed Twitch game out there since there are new games that come out often which attract the attention of the larger gaming community. We can’t predict if there is an esport out there that can overtake League of Legends as the top title but trends dictate that both VALORANT and CS:GO continue to grow in viewership which gives them the potential to be the biggest games on Twitch.
The greatest asset that League of Legends had in terms of popularity are the content creators they had who carry entire fanbases to the category. However, with a lot of content creators getting tired of playing the game and some disappearing completely, it’s only a matter of time before a good percentage of the viewers make the switch to other games. This will drastically impact the viewership that League of Legends has on Twitch.
The esports scene is also slowly changing. While Riot Games is making a lot of positive changes to improve the competitiveness of the esport, many veteran players have already retired with more soon to follow which will discourage some loyal fans to continue watching the game. There are many hardcore fans who only support specific teams and players but every region is making massive changes with organizations coming in and out of the league.
While we’ve introduced a lot of issues, it’s not like League of Legends is the only game that is experiencing all these problems. It’s still hard to say whether or not it will consistently stay the most viewed Twitch game in the next few years but we are confident that it will remain a relevant part of gaming culture as a whole for the next decade.
