Esports World Cup 2025: Winners, Trends, and Shifting Viewership Metrics

LOS ANGELES, California — The Esports World Cup 2025 wrapped up Sunday with Team Falcons winning back-to-back Club Championships, but the event’s viewership metrics reveal both victory and challenges.

Over the seven-week festival, average viewership surged to over 181,000 concurrent viewers, representing a 33% increase. Total watch time climbed over 50%, reaching 184 million hours. Despite these gains, certain demographics, including Russian- and Portuguese-speaking audiences, saw declines.

This year’s event was broadly broadcast in 43 languages, including Greek, setting a new benchmark for esports festivals. Previous events like the League of Legends World Championship typically offer coverage in around 20 languages. The Esports World Cup aims to be the most accessible esports event globally.

Southeast Asia showed the strongest growth, with Indonesian viewership skyrocketing by 90% and the Philippines experiencing a 43% increase. The rising popularity of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in the region contributed to these impressive numbers.

English-language streams grew by 56%, bolstering their role as the central hub for international fans. However, not all regions thrived. Russian-language viewership dropped by 27% due to the elimination of popular teams, while Brazilian Portuguese viewership declined due to a lack of homegrown teams.

Notable successes emerged elsewhere, particularly in Japan, where audiences quadrupled, and Hindi-language streams jumped nearly 1000% mainly due to the participation of an Indian team despite regulatory challenges.

The festival streamed across 16 platforms, including an additional platform called Rumble. While Twitch maintained its status as a significant platform, it experienced a slight decline of 0.57%. In contrast, YouTube and TikTok reported growth rates of 80-100% year-over-year, further propelled by Mobile Legends: Bang Bang-related content.

Among smaller platforms, South Korea’s CHZZK saw a dramatic increase in viewership, surpassing 8 million hours watched. This signifies a shift in viewer preferences towards mobile-focused platforms and younger audiences, suggesting a changing landscape in esports broadcasting.

As the Esports World Cup solidifies its global reach, these evolving trends highlight both successes and challenges in engaging diverse audiences effectively.