2016 Mid-Season Invitational By the Numbers

Riot·Jun 13, 2016·1 votes·22,739 views

As we rocket into summer split and begin the countdown towards the 2016 World Championship, we’re looking back on our 2016 Mid-Season Invitational - and how many fans tuned into the springtime clash of champions.

This year’s tournament was more ambitious than ever - spanning 8 days of gameplay and more hours of play than ever before - while on the Rift, twists and turns kept things interesting.

Fans from all over the world tuned in for 119 million hours of live broadcast content (not counting rebroadcast viewership) - with over 202 million unique daily impressions. As with our Worlds 2015 numbers, this is calculated by taking the unique viewers every day and adding those numbers.

At its peak, MSI had over 6 million viewers tuned in concurrently to take in the live action with an average of 2.3 million viewers tuned in simultaneously across the 8 days.

We loved trying new things this year - from an extended format to an exciting opening ceremony to a glowing LED stage. Hearing crowds cheer live in our awesome host city of Shanghai and seeing the competitive narratives unfold - RNG winning the group stage in front of a home crowd, CLG carrying the NA banner, SuperMassive earning respect for Turkey, SKT re-establishing its global dominance (just to name a few) - MSI has been the highlight of our competitive year to-date. Massive thanks to all fans who supported their region and helped make it an event to remember.

20 Comments

DrCyanideJun 14, 20166 votes

The only numbers I care about for MSI are missing...

Where are the Pick/Ban rates Riot? What percentage of your champion roster saw the light of day? How many of them were picked more than 50% of the time, vs only picked once?

RadeacharJun 13, 20162 votes

bubberducky fucked my wife

DvM sneakyWJun 13, 20163 votes

so did i.

TrollFan01Jun 14, 20163 votes

Everyone has

The Other Guy815Jun 14, 20162 votes

I'd like to see console games compete with league's popularity

Daddy GingerJun 14, 20161 votes

Or most other Esports for that matter

MNTARGILLJun 14, 20161 votes

yep

TractJun 14, 20161 votes

I play both, League more by far, but still, its gotta be said. COUGH Overwatch COUGH

13 SnakesJun 14, 20161 votes

Came out less than a month ago, and doesnt have even REMOTELY the same level of following. More people watched others play league during MSI than there are people that even play overwatch. its not even in the same breath as league. lets revisit this in 4 years and see if you are still onto something.

TractJun 14, 20161 votes

No duh, I may not have elaborated enough. While some PC games are very popular Esports, although not any were near league's level, games like like CS:GO for example, have pretty successful showings. Console games, however, really never managed to have anything that could even remotely resemble a successful e sport. Enter Overwatch. Backed by the brand power of Blizzard and their extremely large following, and avalible on PC and console, Overwatch seems pretty much made to be an Esport, and Blizzard has been extremely committed to their games once they make them. Will it match league? Nope. But the OP was talking about a CONSOLE game that could even SLIGHTLY compete with league's status, and Overwatch is probably the first console game ever to have a shot at a successful esports following. I love league, I play it more than overwatch and probably always will, but Overwatch is defidently a fun game especially if I dont have a spare hour for a full match, and its appeal to FPS fans will help it too. I think it defidently has a esports future simmilar to CS:GO, not topping league, but far from insignificant.

13 SnakesJun 14, 20161 votes

that's fair. but i do not see the console version being as big in e-sports as its PC counterpart. but again, i see where you are going with it.

00F1nestJun 14, 20162 votes

Congrats League:D

Alikaboi2Jun 14, 20161 votes

the only reason why rito made this article is because they think it will get more people to watch the LCS last year they hit a plateau on viewership for the finals and number of people playing league so they hid and skewed the numbers. Nice try rito but we see through your ruse

TractJun 14, 20161 votes

Cant tell if satire or sarcasm or what. Evidence? Are you really claiming that when literally everyone watching could see the viewer count, Riot somehow managed to arrange a deal with Twitch/Azubu/Youtube/ect to change the live viewercount? Because that would be pretty damn impressive if that was actually true, but thats not what happened. Good troll post tho, 9.5/10.

YaJpTpOg4CJun 14, 20161 votes

Awesome

POiNtyBalLJun 14, 20161 votes

G2-8

miel amerJun 15, 20161 votes

I still wanna see the ward graphs like they did last year. Which teams warded where? How many wards per team? Per player? That's what I find interesting. Also the pick/ban numbers.