RLCS 2024 World Championship records steady viewership

The RLCS 2024 World Championship, Rocket League’s biggest event of the year, has recorded a peak viewership of 426,833.

The event, which took place at the Dickies Arena in Texas, United States, failed to surpass last year’s peak viewership of 468,292. However, despite the decline in peak viewership, average viewership had a small increase of around 5,000, garnering 153,718. All viewership statistics are courtesy of Esports Charts.

Developed by publisher Psyonix, the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) is the global esports circuit for the vehicular soccer game title. Compared to previous years, the 2024 season underwent a revision of the format, with two splits and each having three open qualifier events leading into an international major.

The top point scorers from each regional league took part in the RLCS World Championship, which featured a prize pool of $1.165m (~£0.88m). Team BDS, the winners of the tournament, took home $300,000 (~£227,308).

The most watched match of the entire tournament was the semifinal between Karmine Corp and G2 Esports. Despite not being the final, the numbers show how teams’ individual fanbases can make a difference in viewership. Karmine Corp was also part of the most-viewed series from the previous year against Team Vitality.

In particular, the French fanbase is particularly attached to the game, as it registered more peak viewers than English-speaking fans (220,001 vs 206,830). While hours watched decreased by more than 2m hours, the decrease is mainly due to the proportional decrease in total air time. In total, the 2024 RLCS World Championship lasted 16 hours less than its 2023 edition.

With the end of the RLCS World Championship, the 2024 competitive season for the game title has come to an end. Prior to the start of the Grand Final, Psyonix announced the introduction of a 1v1 format alongside the traditional 3v3 season, a combined prize pool of $5m (~£3.78m), a Last Chance Open Qualifiers prior to the RLCS World Championship, and its expansion to 20 teams.