It’s Sunday and you know what that means – it’s esports time!

Sunday is the most-viewed day of the week for esports tournaments, according to data from esports statistics provider Esports Charts.

 

The organization analyzed several esports statistics from 2022 and 2023 and made calculations on how different viewers tune in to different esports tournaments.

Sunday, their data claims, is the most active day of the week based on Twitch categories they have been analyzing. “It [Sunday] accounts for over 25% of the total average weekly watch time of esports,” their report noted.

The other 24% of esports consumption, they noted, are on Saturdays – meaning nearly half the time the world watches an esport event are scheduled on weekends.

“Clear scheduling is also crucial for fans to know in advance which days of the week matches for a particular league take place. Naturally, peak viewership activity occurs on weekends when people are less distracted by work/school,” Esports Charts noted.

Monday hours viewed are at 7.3%, followed by Tuesday – the lowest of the week – at 6.7%. Wednesdays are at 8.7%, Thursdays at 11.7%, and Fridays at 16.5% – the latter being highest for a weekday. The trend also shows that more viewerships are expected as the weekend comes.

WHAT TITLES ARE MOST VIEWED ON WHICH DAYS?

The most-viewed esports per day. (Courtesy: Esports Charts)

 

League of Legends, CS2, Dota 2, VALORANT and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are the top five most-watched esports titles across both years, based on Esports Charts’ data.

They noted that LoL generates more watch time than other games almost every day, except on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when they yield the lead to Counter-Strike. Thursdays and Sundays score big for League fans, with Thursday views at 21.8% and Sunday views at 22.6%.

“This indicates well-structured scheduling of regional League of Legends leagues, which occur on different days throughout the week, allowing game fans to watch esports matches regularly,” Esports Charts noted.

Despite having lower overall viewership, Counter-Strike gains more views from Monday to Thursday, ranging from 17.3% to 22.4%. Tuesdays so far are the best time for CS tourneys as they have a 22.4% viewership share.

 

However, they have lower viewership data on weekends, because of its long-league format, often starting in the middle of the week. Another reason is that major tournament finals are usually held on weekends, resulting in higher competition from other games, Esports Charts noted.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, meanwhile, has the highest viewership share on Fridays, with an 18% viewership share. This drops to 17.7% on Saturdays and 14.9% on Sundays, with weekday viewership periodically low on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to Thursdays spiking up the numbers to double digits.

Interestingly, despite the trend, VALORANT viewership peaks at weekdays, with  consistent double-digit viewership percentages throughout Monday to Friday.

 

Monday is seen as a peak day for VALORANT action, with 13% of viewing hours for VALORANT tourneys noted on Mondays.

Dota 2, meanwhile, is viewed mostly from Mondays to Wednesdays, with the popular MOBA scoring 15-18% of viewership compared to other titles.

 

Esports Charts also noted that for most games, Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days of the week, but there are some exceptions. “For instance, Wednesday became the most active day for Rainbow Six Siege esports, as a lot of popular matches of international tournaments were scheduled on Wednesdays. Wednesday also became the most popular day for Call of Duty: Warzone as it frequently sees a lot of 3rd party streamer events during the working week,” the organization stated.

Esports Charts also noted that Mondays slightly deviate from the overall trend and gathers slightly more watch time than Tuesday. “This is due to the peculiarities of calculations, as we used the GMT time zone in our research. Mondays tend to attract some of the actual Sunday watch time, as some tournaments span across the week transition: when it’s already Monday in Europe, Sunday is still ongoing in the United States,” they noted.