League of Legends and Dota 2 rivalry has always been one of the most interesting and intense in esports. While some praised Riot Games' strict and balanced franchise league system, others celebrated Valve's annual hosting of The International, the largest tournament in the entire industry. For over a decade, fans of these games have been trying to prove to each other why their game deserves to be called the king of the MOBA genre.
Esports Charts have analyzed how League of Legends and Dota 2 esports have developed in recent years in terms of audience on streaming services. We have compared the games by key metrics, analyzed the language and platform dynamics, and determined the most popular teams in each discipline.
How watch time & airtime have changed over time
Riot Games' MOBA consistently outperforms its competitor in terms of total Hours Watched by almost twice every year. Meanwhile, League of Legends grew steadily and at a significantly faster pace, from 15% to 28% increase in Hours Watched between 2018 and 2021. On the other hand, Dota 2 had a growth of about 13-14% in 2018-2019. However, in 2020, the game's growth rate slowed down, and in 2021, following the return of The International, Dota 2 experienced an explosive growth of +37%.
Comparison of League of Legends and Dota 2 esports dynamics by Hours Watched
The minimum gap between the disciplines was in 2018 when League of Legends had 376.5 million HW and Dota 2 was 36% below this number. The biggest gap between the games was in 2020, when League of Legends tournaments accumulated twice as many Hours Watched as Dota 2. Due to the pandemic and logistical problems, Riot Games canceled the Mid-Season Invitational, the second-largest international tournament in the discipline. In the same year, Valve canceled its annual The International, which was a huge blow to the entire Dota 2 community.
Another important difference between the two disciplines is the share of community casting at tournaments. In Dota 2, community casting has always played an important role in tournament coverage, and independent streamers have often attracted more viewers than official broadcasts, especially when it comes to streams in the Russian language.
The situation is different in League of Legends: until recently, Riot Games prohibited independent streamers from covering its leagues and championships and has always handled broadcasts itself. During Worlds 2022, the company changed this rule and finally began to cooperate with top independent streamers. Apparently, Riot Games has learned the benefits of this approach from its Valorant leagues, where community casting is very popular. If community casting becomes a regular feature in League of Legends, then by the end of 2023, Riot Games' game may further distance itself from Dota 2 in terms of viewership and Hours Watched.
Comparison of League of Legends and Dota 2 esports dynamics by total airtime
In League of Legends, the total broadcast time of tournaments increased every year (i.e. tournaments became longer or their quantity increased). The biggest jumps were in 2018 (+60%) and 2020 (+27%). The situation with Dota 2 is slightly different. In 2017, Dota 2 was 41% behind League of Legends, but by 2020, it was able to catch up to and even slightly surpass Riot Games' game. The main factor behind this explosive growth in Airtime was the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent emergence of a large number of online leagues.
Due to the cancellation of The International in 2020, there was a large window of time without major LAN tournaments in the professional scene. Local organizers quickly filled the vacuum with online leagues. Top teams were happy to participate in them to stay in shape until the return of major tournaments. In addition, playing online allowed them to participate in multiple leagues at the same time (and earn more prize money). In 2020, the EPIC League, the OMEGA League, the ONE Esports League, the Parimatch League, the DPL-CDA Professional League, and many other similar leagues took place, lasting a month or more.
An important factor in increasing broadcast time was that instead of one general international tournament, organizers began hosting multiple leagues in different regions, solving problems of ping and time zones. For example, the Dota Summit 12 tournament took place in Los Angeles, where it attracted six teams from different countries and regions, while Dota Summit 13 was held online as three different events, separately for teams from Europe, America, and Southeast Asia.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Valve used a season format with five Minors and five Majors, which lasted until March 2020. In 2021, Valve introduced a new season format with regional leagues and divisions. Now, 2-3 Majors and several independent major tournaments are held each year. These innovations have brought a clear structure to the professional scene, which is more convenient for tournament operators and teams themselves. The stability is evident in the almost identical Hours Watched that Dota 2 generated in 2021 and 2022.
Dynamics by Language and Platform
The professional scenes of League of Legends and Dota 2 also differ in terms of popular broadcast languages. English and Korean accumulate the most Hours Watched of viewership for League of Legends, accounting for about 55% of the total. However, other languages also contribute to viewership, but their popularity varies depending on the circumstances.
Dynamics of the most popular broadcast languages in League of Legends esports
For example, in 2017, Vietnamese accounted for almost 11.5% of the total tournament Hours Watched for the year, but by 2022, this had decreased to 6.2%. The pandemic played a big role in this, as participants in the Vietnamese league VCS missed two consecutive World Championships (in 2020 and 2021) due to strict quarantine restrictions in their country, which definitely affected the popularity of the game in the region.
The language dynamics in League of Legends also show that in recent years, the share of English has gradually decreased in favor of Spanish, French, and Portuguese. The European scene has always been one of the most popular in the discipline, and French and Spanish fans rightfully belong to the most active fans in the region. The growth in popularity of these languages was also promoted by community casters, such as Spaniard ibai and French kamet0, who cover matches of their teams on personal channels. Finally, the share of Spanish is also increasing due to the regional LLA league (Latin America), where Spanish is the main language of broadcasts.
As for Portuguese, its growth was driven by broadcasts of the Brazilian league CBLOL. Recently, it has been actively gaining popularity, and by some parameters, it is already ahead of the American LCS.
Dynamics of the most popular broadcast languages in Dota 2 esports
In Dota 2, the main broadcast languages are English and Russian — usually, they account for at least 80% of the total Hours Watched. In other words, their total share is much larger than that of the two most popular languages in League of Legends.
If you look at the trends over a few years, you can see that the shares of English and Russian are gradually decreasing. If in 2017 English accounted for 48% of the total, then in 2022 this decreased to 41.9%. Russian suffered an even greater drop — from 43% to 35.9%. At the same time, the share of Spanish, the third most popular language, has grown from 1.9% to 5.6% over the past six years — largely thanks to the development of the professional scene in South America.
In recent years, the overall share of other less popular languages, which have attracted some of the audience from English and Russian broadcasts, has also grown. For example, Indonesian, Tagalog, Ukrainian, etc. This happened after the pandemic and the switch to a new global tournament season format. Previously, the whole professional scene of Dota 2 was centered around major international tournaments. Now, top teams are spending much more time in domestic leagues, which is causing more interest from local fans. This is especially true in Southeast Asia, where teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, etc. compete in one league. This multinationality of participants has also led to the growth of other language broadcast indicators.
Dynamics of the most popular platforms in Dota 2 esports
The situation with the distribution of both disciplines by platform is similar, except that there are interesting differences in certain aspects. The main platform for League of Legends and Dota 2 esports coverage is still Twitch. And in Dota 2, the dominance of the platform by Amazon is unquestionable, but in League of Legends, a significant share is taken by YouTube.
Dynamics of the most popular platforms in League of Legends esports
Interestingly, in Dota 2, the popularity of broadcasts on YouTube is gradually increasing every year, while in League of Legends, it is decreasing. The difference is especially noticeable between 2020 and 2021, when the share of YouTube sharply decreased from 36% to 21%. This drop happened because Riot Games temporarily stopped broadcasting LCK matches on YouTube in favor of streams on AfreecaTV and Sports Naver platforms. Now the company is clearly searching for a balance: the LCK Spring 2023 league was covered on four platforms, which ended up with almost identical shares of total Hours Watched: Sports Naver (21.2%), YouTube (23.3%), Twitch (26.4%), and AfreecaTV (28.2%).
Regional leagues are experimenting with finding alternative platforms for broadcasting in order to attract new audiences. Riot Games is conducting similar experiments at international tournaments. For example, the MSI 2022 was covered only on Twitch, YouTube, and AfreecaTV, and during the MSI 2023, NimoTV and Sports Naver were also added to this list.
We should also note the popularity of the AfreecaTV platform in League of Legends. This is a fairly unique case, as AfreecaTV is a regional platform, popular only in South Korea. Nevertheless, it manages to gain a significant share of Hours Watched at LCK broadcasts and international tournaments such as the MSI and Worlds.
Most Popular Dota 2 and League of Legends Teams
The popularity of teams can be assessed by several metrics, the main ones being Hours Watched, Average and Peak Viewers at matches. Hours Watched indicate popularity over a long distance — often the team that has played the most matches leads in this metric (which is not very objective). The Peak Viewers metric also depends on many factors, such as the media importance of the opponent and the importance of the tournament. At the same time, the Average Viewers number at matches is a more objective indicator that gives a more balanced assessment of the popularity of the team.
We have compared teams based on the Average Viewers number at games and calculated how many times these teams were among the Top 5 most popular teams at the end of the year. Based on the number of such entries, we have compiled the charts below.
Most popular League of Legends esports teams
In the League of Legends discipline, the team Fnatic has often made it into the Top 5 for the year in terms of Average Viewers per match. This is a fairly reputable club that has won the seasonal EU LCS league 8 times, held 3rd-4th place at the World Championship in 2013 and 2015, held 3rd-4th place at the Mid-Season Invitational in 2015 and 2018, and also took second place at the 2018 World Championship.
In second place are T1 and G2 Esports — they have both made it into the Top 5 five times in recent years. Some may be surprised that T1 is not in first place, but it is worth remembering 2018, when the Korean club performed very poorly in the domestic LCK league and did not make it to any international tournaments. G2 Esports had a similar situation in 2021. Fnatic has also not performed well in recent seasons, but the team continues to consistently gather a large audience.
If we compile a ranking by region, Europe will be at the top — two representatives of the LEC are among the Top 3 most popular League of Legends teams. Moreover, Fnatic and G2 Esports are not only the most reputable teams in the region, but they are also considered principal rivals — their confrontations always gather a large number of viewers on broadcasts.
South Korea takes second place in popularity among regions, with LCK teams T1, Dplus KIA (formerly DWG KIA), DRX, and Gen.G making it into the Top. Interestingly, all but the last have won world championships, but Gen.G has been showing strong performances in recent seasons and is now seen as T1's main competitor in the LCK.
North America takes third place, with many representatives from the LCS making it into the Top, including top-ranking teams Team Liquid and Cloud9, which are not only considered among the strongest in the region but also have a large fan base.
Most popular Dota 2 esports teams
Dota 2 also has a clear leader among teams, which is the European team OG. It is worth noting that this is the most title-winning team in the world, with victories in five majors and two tournaments of The International (in 2018 and 2019). Matches featuring OG always attracted a large number of viewers, as the team's players preferred unconventional strategies and were not afraid to experiment with hero selection. Interestingly, OG's roster has undergone many changes in recent years, but the team's popularity has not diminished as a result.
Team Secret takes second place among the most popular Dota 2 teams, It has appeared in the top five most popular teams of the year five times. It also has many victories in international tournaments, including four majors. It is worth mentioning Team Secret's results during the pandemic — in 2020, it won seven online leagues in a row, demonstrating unconditional dominance on the scene.
If we evaluate regions in Dota 2, Western Europe is also the leader in terms of the number of most popular teams. Moreover, this leadership is much more evident than in League of Legends. Eastern Europe takes second place, with four representatives in the Top. Among the most popular teams, there are also two representatives from China and one from North America, but their popularity is primarily attributed to matches against top teams from Europe.
Conclusion
There are many similarities and differences between esports League of Legends and Dota 2. For example, Western Europe is a key region for both disciplines — there, teams directly compete with each other for audience attention. On the other hand, League of Legends is not very popular in Eastern Europe, while Dota 2 is practically absent from the professional scene in South Korea.
League of Legends has a more flexible professional scene in terms of organizing tournament broadcasts, while Riot Games offers a wider range of languages as well as more platform options. As for Dota 2, there is a more conservative community here, which is distributed across two main languages for broadcasts (English and Russian), and viewers mostly choose Twitch as their streaming platform.
In terms of the season format, the situation is reversed: the League of Legends professional scene has long been established, and over the past few years, developers have made only minor adjustments to it. On the other hand, Dota 2 has had many different formats that differed in the number of Minors/Majors, the presence of regional leagues, and so on. Thanks to a stable season format, regional leagues in League of Legends were not greatly affected by the pandemic — they simply continued to be played online. At the same time, in Dota 2, half of the season had to be canceled altogether as there was simply no way to hold international tournaments.
Obviously, in many respects, League of Legends surpasses Dota 2, but Riot Games still has something to learn from its competitors (for example, recently, the developers have allowed community casting). On the other hand, after the pandemic, Valve divided the professional scene into regional leagues, which resemble franchise leagues in League of Legends. Both companies are trying to improve their strengths and learn something from their competitors.
