Esports Charts is celebrating ten years of capturing and providing data to the wider esports industry. Today, the team revealed a massive post diving deep into the company’s history and the most major milestones from the world of esports over the last ten years. It’s a telling look at the evolution of esports, from the most-watched events to the most surprising trends.
It’s a nice trip down memory lane, though. It showcases how beautifully esports has grown over the years, and how it has blossomed into something truly powerful and paradigm-shifting.
Esports Charts Reveals Major Milestones
The enormous report from Esports Charts unveils what the team thinks is the biggest batch of key moments from the last decade of esports. It’s one hell of a list. Let’s run through it.
2016
Worlds 2016 became the first esports tournament to peak at over one million viewers (and it would only continue to rocket upwards from there).
2017
Battle royale titles started to find their feet in the esports space, with games like PUBG and Fortnite opening the doors to an entirely new genre that would be followed by games like Warzone years later.
2018
Annual watch time surpasses one billion hours for the first year.
2019
League of Legends Worlds pulls in a peak of 3.98 million viewers, almost triple what it achieved when it set the one million record just three years earlier.
2020
COVID-19 temporarily eradicated LAN events and pushed esports into an online-only operating model, forcing the world to shift.
2021
The concept of watch parties and community casters blows up, with 56.2% of all VCT Reykjavik watch time being secured by community casters and streamers. This would be a drop in the ocean compared to the viewership generated by watch parties today.
2022
Major LAN events start returning after the COVID-19 pandemic, with event organizers and venue operators looking to recoup serious losses.
2023
Women’s esports starts to pick up pace and gain insane traction, and 28 million watch hours were logged this year.
2024
League Worlds hits a new world record, pulling in a peak viewer count of 6.94 million, numbers that nobody ever thought would be possible. It also saw T1’s Faker secure another Worlds ring.
2025
This year saw unparalleled viewership, with the global audience watching 3.2 billion hours of esports.
2026
This year, mobile esports has reached new heights, carving out a serious corner of the industry as the M7 World Championship hit 5.68 million peak viewers.
Which milestone do you remember the most fondly? Let us know on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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