Newzoo sees live esports viewership growing for some big events.
Newzoo sees live esports viewership growing for some big events.
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4 biggest Western esports events generated 190.1 million viewing hours

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Esports viewership is on the rise, but not all of big events are benefiting equally. Market researcher Newzoo said that tournaments for the West’s four-largest esports events generated 190.1 million hours of live viewership on Twitch and YouTube Gaming.

Newzoo said that was up 6.9 percent from a year earlier, reflecting growth at ELeague Major: Boston for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, The International (Dota 2), and the Overwatch League Finals. But the League of Legends World Championship, the largest event, declined from 86 million hours in 2017 to 81.1 million hours in 2018.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.