We often talk about viewership in esports, as it is one of the many ways to measure the popularity of an event or esport. It is safe to say that this year's 2024 Mid-Season Invitational was a huge success.

In 2023, MSI only saw an average of 802,561 viewers during the mid-year League of Legends tournament. In contrast, MSI 2024 averaged 1,013,790 viewers, which is a huge improvement for the Riot Games series and a testament to how successful MSI’s format changes (from best-of-threes to best-of-fives) have been. It was so good that viewership reached an all-time high, with over 2.8 million fans tuning in for the peak.

While MSI 2024 as a whole saw astonishing highs, the number of fans who watched the nail-biting and sweaty final match between the LPL’s Bilibili Gaming and the LCK’s Gen.G peaked at 2,616,116 viewers, according to broadcast and streaming analytics company Esports Charts. However, it was the semi-final match between T1 and BLG on May 18 that broke MSI’s viewing figures, with over 2.8 million people tuning in to watch the incredible clash.

It’s an impressive haul considering the 2023 MSI finals between JD Gaming and BLG only peaked at 1.1 million viewers, slightly higher than the average number of fans who watched the entire MSI this year. It’s unclear whether this low in ratings was ever due to the finals being between two LPL teams (and thus lacking regional rivalries) or because the championship meta was outdated. Thankfully, MSI has improved greatly this year.