Riot Games' Twitch channel has become the first in history to reach 1 billion total views on Twitch's livestreaming platform, the company announced Sunday.
Riot Games is the developer of League of Legends (LoL), a staggeringly popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game first released on Oct. 27, 2009. It routinely ranks as one of Twitch's most-streamed titles.
The milestone was celebrated on stream Monday morning and subsequently tweeted about by the League of Legends esports twitter account.
We'd like to extend a thank you to the viewers for helping the @RiotGames @Twitch Channel be the first one to surpass 1 billion views. We could not have done it without your loyal support ❤️ pic.twitter.com/2W69ix0CEJ
— lolesports (@lolesports) June 24, 2018
Without a doubt, the mammoth achievement comes off the back of a strong esports showing, with LoL racking up huge numbers of viewers during competitive play across the world. In May, viewership of the Mid-Season Invitational peaked at 127 million, strongly buoyed by Chinese viewers tuning in to support their squad.
For comparison, Ninja, the ever-popular, Drake-befriending Fortnite streamer currently sits at 228 million total views. That's a testament to both the impressive pull of Fortnite, released in July 2017, in addition to the incredible staying power of League of Legends and its esports association, which has been in operation since 2013.
On the TV side of things, this year's Superbowl, routinely one of the most-watched events on American TV, attracted 103 million viewers.
The third week of the North America League of Legends Championship Series continues July 1, so onward and upward to 2 billion views.
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