MSI 2023 broke the tournaments viewership record, influenced by co-streams

MSI 2023 became the most-watched Mid-Season Invitational to date with its viewership record broken. Despite the low grand-finals numbers, MSI 2023 was a major success for Riot Games in the viewership department. A big contributor to the numbers being where they were was the decision to allow community creators to co-stream the international event.

The first major international event of the year saw the peak viewership rise to 2.2 million. A slight increase from the 2.1 million in 2022. This was despite the low viewership numbers for the grand finals. With the new format in place, we saw the first domestic MSI grand final which saw JDG take down Bilibili Gaming to win the tournament.

One of the big changes off the Rift heading into MSI 2023 was the announcement that community creators would be able to co-stream the tournament. This was a big step forward for Riot, bringing international communities closer to the action. Riot's decision prompted LEC caster and streamer Marc Robert "Caedrel" Lamont to forgo casting the event in order to stream daily watch parties for his audience.

According to Esports Charts, the popular streamer was the second most-watched streamer with 2.72 million hours watched across the event. Caedrel was part of a very successful ensemble of creators that contributed to 32% of the MSI 2023 viewership. Co-streams saw a large boost in viewership, giving matches a 40% increase in viewership at times.

Despite the tournament being in Europe, it is T1 that had the highest average viewers at MSI 2023. And while the timezones were not favorable to the viewers in Korea, that didn't stop T1 from bringing in 1.4 million average viewers. Surprisingly, G2 Esports falls short of their EMEA brothers' MAD Lions in the viewership game. MAD Lions averaged 1 million viewers during their time at MSI while G2 wasn't able to reach the seven-figure mark, coming in at 881,931.

As expected no North American side features in the top five most viewed teams at MSI 2023. This can be contributed to the difficult time zone difference. Fans on the west coast had to wake up early in the morning to watch their teams compete. Another potential factor is North America's poor international performance. In recent times North America has not performed well at international events, likely leaving fans unsure if they want to wake up early for an expected result.

Here are the top five most-watched teams at MSI 2023:

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