League of Legends helps e-sports association double online audience for key European event

Fans watched more than 12 million hours’ worth of competitive gaming last week as e-sports continues to grow with the help of one of the biggest online games and livestreaming platform Twitch.

The Electronic Sports League held its annual Intel Extreme Masters Katowice event in Poland on March 14 through March 16, and its peak concurrent viewership more than doubled to 643,362. That’s up 169 percent from the previous year. ESL broadcasted the proceedings live through Twitch’s streaming service.