why did the ratings of the s14 finals soar?
2024-10-01
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the popularity of the s14 finals is largely due to the active audience in the wild card competition.
author: chen wenjian
picture: from the internet
9on march 25, mdk from the european division and vke from the vietnam division started the 2024league of legendsthe first shot of the global finals (hereinafter referred to as s 14).
compared with the more confrontational main game, the play-in stage where the fourth seed in the european and american divisions and the wild card division "peace each other" would not have received much attention, especially in the public opinion that "league of legends is going to be bad" in the atmosphere, the s14 finals seemed like they should have been in a "who cares" state.however, data from esports charts shows that the pv (peak number of viewers) on the first day of the s14 qualifying tournament increased by 28.8% year-on-year to 1.328 million, and the average number of viewers soared by 48.8%. for comparison, the pvs of this year’s fearless contract global championship and ti are both around 1.4 million.and unlike last year, the game with the second highest pv in the s13 qualifying round barely exceeded 1 million, while this year there are at least seven games with pv exceeding this number.01
as the main stage of the wild card competition, the popularity of the s14 finals is largely due to the active audience in the wild card competition.
in 2023, thanks to the performance of the vietnamese team gam, when gam defeated tl in the main game, the peak ratings in vietnamese exceeded english for the first time. this year, the viewing data of the vietnam division continued to soar, and its pv increased by 47.4%. the ratings data also surged in the brazilian region. not only did the pv increase by 39.4%, but the total viewing time also increased by 58.1%.the growth of viewing data in the two major competition areas has the same reason. on the one hand, the e-sports industries in vietnam and brazil are in a period of rapid growth.as early as 2019, niko partners and google jointly predicted that the annual growth rate of vietnam’s e-sports industry will reach 28% in the next five years. people in southeast asia, including vietnam, also have a high degree of recognition of e-sports. the first time e-sports became an official event in a large-scale comprehensive sports competition was the 2019 southeast asian games.according to newzoo data in 2019, brazil has grown into the country with the third largest number of e-sports users. even though the national government has not yet regarded e-sports as a part of sports, more than half of the surveyed users believe that e-sports is equivalent to sports. at the same time, some state governments have introduced relevant laws to help the development of the e-sports industry.thanks to the rapid development of the e-sports industry in vietnam and brazil, after the end of msi this year, many lck teams such as gen, hle, kt, dk, and bro specially went to vietnam to hold fan meetings. in brazil, the 2024 league of legends brazilian division summer finals was held at the mineirinho stadium, which can accommodate about 20,000 people.on the other hand, riot itself is also looking for ways to expand the influence of league of legends events, and opening up more "secondary streams" to anchors on major platforms is one of them.according to statistics from overseas live broadcast platforms, "second-channel streams" accounted for almost half of the 2024msi ratings. especially in the brazilian division, which opened the "second stream" for the first time, its blessing effect is even more significant. former brazilian professional player baiano alone holds up half of the ratings in the brazilian division.at the same time, riot will also integrate some divisions in 2025, and many wild card divisions will be merged. this means that the difficulty of advancing to the global finals in the wild card division may be further increased. for many wild card teams, this s game may be their "last dance", which has stimulated the enthusiasm of the audience in the wild card division. .in addition, from the perspective of the entire league of legends e-sports, the competitive story of faker winning the fourth championship in his career last year made the title of "big devil" once again resound in the e-sports circle, so that users outside the circle can know faker with the name of league of legends, the influence of league of legends e-sports has been further amplified by the accumulation of this competitive story.02
in the growth of s14 finalist data, “second-pass flow” played an important role.in previous related analysis articles, the “secondary flow” is often linked to the development level of the event. it seems that the “secondary flow” should be “unlocked” after the e-sports event develops to a certain stage.
the results of the s14 qualifying rounds showed that "second-tier players" also have considerable potential in less mature e-sports leagues.statistics from esports charts show that among the ratings of the four major competition areas in 2024, only the "second stream" of the lpl will account for more than 50%, but this is largely due to the unique live broadcast ecology of lpl events that affects the statistical results. interference. for comparison, 70.9% of the ratings in the brazilian division came from "second-tier viewers."the reason may be that in more mature leagues, their official event content is richer. for example, in addition to the league, league-derived content such as lpl's "canteen" is also broadcast in the official live broadcast room. and compared to anchors, league officials have other ways to expand their influence in addition to content, such as media dissemination.in some wild card competition areas, the e-sports industry is not perfect. the dissemination of many e-sports content lacks guidance and is fermented from the bottom up. the official content of the league is relatively scarce, so the audience is more inclined to familiarize themselves with the content. the anchor will watch the game. for example, a report by ascent group warc pointed out that 44% of e-sports fans in vietnam only follow the kol of their choice.from the perspective of lpl, "secondary flow" is equally important, but not internally, but in the internationalization of lpl.however, lpl has already made plans for this. in 2022, the lpl official website announced the launch of the portuguese "second stream". yoda, a well-known anchor in brazil, and former professional player revolta are among the anchors of the "second stream". in addition, the well-known english commentator caedrel is also the anchor of the lpl "second stream".however, lpl does not seem to pay enough attention to the vietnamese audience. for example, the lpl can actually have a deeper connection with the vietnamese division than the lck, such as sofm players from vietnam, or the "bond" between the tes team and vietnam, etc.butlpl teams mergedwithoutsome lck teams went to vietnam to hold fan meetings,there may be somedifferences in team popularity,however, during this year's lpl summer playoffs, a vietnamese reporter sent an interview request to the league, but in the end nothing happened.finally, from the perspective of the entire league of legends e-sports ecosystem, the importance of wild card regions such as vietnam and brazil is also increasing day by day.although statistics show that among the four major regions, only the pv and total viewing time of the lcs are declining, but for the other three major regions that are gradually peaking, it will undoubtedly become more and more difficult to cultivate new audiences, and the newly entered the brazil and vietnam divisions may become an important driving force for the growth of the entire league of legends e-sports.it remains to be seen what impact the 2025 division reform will have on the wild card division.
