Tyler ‘Tyler1’ Steinkamp, whether you love him or loathe him, is the most watched League of Legends streamer on Twitch. He rakes in a lot of viewership, despite his Marmite personality, and believes Riot Games “needs” him because he is watched more than the LCS.
While waiting in a lobby for a game of LoL in his latest stream, a fan tells Tyler1 that he gets more viewership than the LCS (although this claim is pretty dubious, as will be explained shortly). The fan references a tweet from The Esports Observer that shows Tyler1 having more hours watched on Twitch than the official LCS channel last week, despite a number of big matchups such as Cloud9 vs Team SoloMid.
This appears to surprise the streamer, who says: “Wait, you’re telling me that more people watch me than LCS, like hours weekly?” However, he then bursts into a rant that jokes about Riot needing his popularity and being able to get away with being banned.
“No shit I don’t get banned!” Tyler1 says bursting into laughter. “They actually need me! Watch this: I’m going to int the fuck out of this game because I can’t be banned! Riot’s fucked!”
While it’s likely that Tyler1’s outburst was satirical (you never can tell with T1 these days) it’s worth pointing out that technically he is not watched more than the LCS.
Firstly, while the stats shown by The Esports Observer are correct, it is only focusing on Twitch metrics and doesn’t draw in LCS viewership from YouTube where a significant portion of fans watch competitive LoL action.
Our #Twitch Top 10’s of last week. TheGrefg appears for the first time, streaming #Minecraft and #Fortnite.
🥇 @xQc
🥈 @NICKMERCS
🥉 @timthetatman
#4 @Gaules
#5 @TheGrefg
#6 @TTfue
#7 @Asmongold
#8 @loltyler1
#9 @LCSOfficial
#10 @auronplay🔗 : https://t.co/uXajicnwP4 pic.twitter.com/tvj681ZVmr
— The Esports Observer (@esportsobserved) July 14, 2020
Secondly, in that seven day period, Tyler1 streamed around 100 hours more content than the LCS.
And lastly, looking at the entire period between the start of the LCS Summer Split and now, the LCS has had more hours watched across Twitch and YouTube (8.8 million) than Tyler 1 has had with his streams (6.5 million), according to Esports Charts Pro.
So, despite there being plenty of scrutiny over the quality of the LCS’ production and level of competition recently, the LCS actually trumps League of Legends’ biggest streamer in terms of viewership.
