Day 1 of LoL Worlds 2020 smashes viewership record for Play-in stage

The 2020 League of Legends World Championship is finally underway, and it is already setting new viewership records following a Day 1 clash between MAD Lions and Team Liquid in the Play-in stage.

With all of the teams now in Shanghai, Worlds 2020 finally kicked off on September 25 with 10 top teams from around the world fighting for the remaining spots in the main event’s group stage.

The first day of the Play-in stage has already delivered some massive upsets, with the Chinese 4th seed LGD Gaming falling at the hands of VCS underdogs PSG Talon, who are currently competing with substitute players amid visa issues.

While there were many exciting battles on Day 1, the most-anticipated game of the day was between the Group A favorites, MAD Lions and Team Liquid who faced off in the first EU vs NA matchup of Worlds 2020.

The matchup went in Team Liquid’s favor, off the back of Edward ‘Tactical’ Ra’s impressive performance on Twitch, but the two teams also managed to smash the Play-in stage’s previous viewership records, according to EsportsCharts.

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Although the record had narrowly been beaten during the LGD vs PSG Talon match earlier in the day, Team Liquid’s win saw the viewership peak at 1.15 million concurrent viewers, smashing the 1.007m Play-in stage record that has been recorded in previous years.

The MAD vs TL match saw a peak of just over 550,000 unique viewers on both Twitch and YouTube, which were combined together to set these new viewership figures.

It is worth noting that, due to the lack of streaming data available from Chinese streaming sites, it is impossible to accurately track the viewership from the home region, so those figures have not been included in the record. Television viewership numbers are also excluded from the record.

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As they are unable to track Chinese viewership and television figures, many estimate that the actual viewership record may actually have been a couple million more than what is recorded, showing promising signs for the interest in this year’s World Championship.

With plenty of Play-in matches still to go, including the final Knockout Stage to determine the last two slots, there is still an opportunity for this record to climb even higher, after an impressive Day 1.

You can keep up to date with all the latest action in the LoL World Championship, with a full schedule, results, teams, and more at our official Worlds 2020 hub.