MSI 2023’s T1 vs JDG Upper Bracket Finals Sets a New Record With 2.29M Peak Viewers

The five-game clash between the two tournament favorites became the most-watched series in MSI history.

Even though it doesn’t reach the heights of League of Legends World Championship numbers, MSI viewership has been on a steady rise year after year. The last Mid-Season İnvitational with under a million peak viewers was back in 2018, and the 2022’s event managed to break through 2M during the finals between T1 and RNG.

Thanks to a growing interest among the audiences toward international events with the format changes ahead of the 2023 Season, MSI 2023 has been decimating every viewership record. Today’s Upper Bracket Finals, T1 vs JDG, was probably the most exciting series of the year with teams trading games back and forth, becoming the most-watched MSI series ever in the meantime. According to Esports Charts, more than 2.2M fans (2,297,919 to be specific) JDG knock T1 down to the Losers’ Bracket and secure themselves a spot in the Finals this Sunday.

The final teamfight in game 5! #MSI2023 pic.twitter.com/3mgUOSnDOJ

— LoL Esports (@lolesports) May 18, 2023

Peak viewership isn’t the only record MSI 2023 managed to break either. So far the event had 752K average viewers, the highest for any Mid-Season Invitational ever. The record for average viewership previously belonged to MSI 2021 with 711K.

One big advantage for MSI 2023 when it comes to attracting new eyes is the addition of costreaming to the event. A common practice for Riot in Valorant and LCS for a couple of years now, Riot had started to allow costreaming international LoL Esports events with the Worlds 2022. But while not many community figures were allowed to costream Worlds, MSI 2023 has over 40 streamers from eight different regions covering the event.

Some of these streamers have huge audiences that can rival an official broadcast, such as the co-founder of the LEC org KOI, Ibai Llanos, who has been averaging over 60K viewers for the last month while peaking at over 300K. Another two big names covering the event are the popular Brazilian streamer Gustavo “Baiano” Gomes and former pro player and LEC caster Marc “Caedrel” Lamont. Both Baiano and Caedrel averaged over 20K viewers during MSI so far. Caedrel was even announced to be on the broadcast roster for the event but stepped down to costream the event on his Twitch channel.

There are three games remaining before the MSI 2023 is concluded, and with a potential runback of a T1 vs JDG series in the finals, if T1 manages to run the Losers’ Bracket gauntlet, the peak viewership record will probably be surpassed again. The MSI action will continue tomorrow with a series between BLG and Gen.G, for a chance to face T1 in the Losers’ Bracket Finals.

For more of our coverage during MSI 2023, follow us on ESTNN.