It’s taken nearly three years, but League of Legends has finally been dethroned as the hottest spectator sport in gaming.

As anyone who’s ever browsed Twitch’s most popular channels can tell, in the streaming world, League of Legends is king. It’s consistently been the most-watched, most-streamed game, holding the number one spot for as long as tracking sites like Gamoloco have been recording.

That is, until last month. August 2017 saw the end of League‘s 36-month streak, which had been going ever since Gamoloco began tracking in October 2014. That means there’s a chance its dominance stretched back even further than that—we just don’t know for sure.

The usurper? PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

For the 1st time since we started monitoring Twitch data in 2014, League didn't rank #1 across a full month, dethroned as it was by PUBG. pic.twitter.com/wzd3fPKVBR

— GAMOLOCO (@Gamoloco) September 1, 2017

The surprise smash hit game has attracted a huge audience, and has already toppled Dota 2‘s record as the most-played game on Steam with 792,000 players on that platform. Now, that popularity has extended to the streaming world. The signs started showing around the middle of the month, when PUBG attracted 16.9 million weekly views to League‘s 15 million (no doubt helped along by the game’s first official tournament at Gamescom). The streak of viewers only increased from there.

By the end of the month, it was official: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds knocked League of Legends down a peg, claiming the title of most-viewed game on Twitch for itself.

Will the streak continue? Battlegrounds has only continued to increase in popularity, so it’s certainly possible. We’ll have to keep an eye on the trends and see if the new king in town is here to stay.

Posted: Sep 02, 2017 7:32 am
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/this-might-be-pubgs-most-impressive-accomplishment-yet/