LVP (MEDIAPRO Group), the world’s leading Spanish-language eSports organization, bid farewell to 2021 with the best audience figures in its more than eleven years’ history.
By year-end, the company registered 69.8 million cumulative viewers for its broadcasts, 24% more than in 2020 (56 million).
In addition, this growth was also reflected in other consumer indicators such as hours viewed, which grew by 45% compared to 2020, with more than 35.8 million.
The League of Legends Superliga, the benchmark competition in Spain, drew 13 million viewers in 2021, 37% more than the data registered for 2020 and as such, the Superliga also marked a new record in terms of content hours consumed with 5.5 million hours viewed (+39%), as well as a new peak in concurrent viewers, reaching 73,596 viewers for the summer grand finale held at the BigC in Barcelona, and the highest figure in history for a Spanish LVP competition.
And 2022 is shaping up to be an even more spectacular year for the Superliga with the entry of several big-name teams including FC Barcelona, scheduled to debut on the League of Legends scene;
KOI, owned by content creator Ibai Llanos and footballer Gerard Piqué; the Basque ensemble of BISONS ECLUB; Fnatic, one of the most important teams in Europe, and which has opted to compete in the Superliga with Team Queso; and Team Heretics, a reference in the national eSports ecosystem.
In addition, LVP will also spearhead the organization of the new Second Division Superliga, the silver category of the League of Legends in Spain, featuring teams such as Falcons, Rebels, Guasones Team and CASE Esports, owned by top-level footballers, such as Azpilicueta (Chelsea), De Gea (Manchester United), Rubén García (CA Osasuna) and Casemiro (Real Madrid), respectively.
2021 was also the year of VALORANT confirmation in LVP.
After 2020, the year of the launch of the Riot Games shooter, in which LVP made a firm commitment to the development of the national scene and talent, the company took the process another step forward in 2021 with the VALORANT Rising Series, the benchmark competition in Spain with MediaMarkt and Intel as the principal sponsors and which closed out the year with 4 million cumulative viewers and a spectacular final at the Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB) in which more than 1,500 people exploded in celebration with the triumph of Acend in the return of in-person eSports events.
The tournament will continue forging ahead in LVP in 2022 with the VRL Spain Rising MediaMarkt and Intel, the new VALORANT professional league in Spain, scheduled to get underway in February featuring ten teams.
Along the same lines, LVP was the official Spanish language channel for the international League of Legends and VALORANT tournaments, as well as that of CS:GO BLAST and also debuted in charge of the broadcast of the 2021 Horizon Cup, the international Wild Rift tournament pitting the very best teams in the world of mobile device gaming against one another.
In addition, LVP renewed its agreement with LaLiga and Electronic Arts to continue managing the production of eLaLiga Santander 2021-22, the only Official League Qualifier of EA SPORTS FIFA 22 Global Series in Spain organized by LaLiga and Electronic Arts boasting a prize pool in excess of €300,000.
LVP also produced the broadcasts in Spanish and Portuguese of the Dota Pro Circuit of China during 2021, one of the famous Valve MOBA tournaments of reference, in addition to producing LCK, the Korean League of Legends league, and one of the biggest of its kind in the world.
2021 was also the year of the return of on-site, face-to-face events, after more than two years of absence due to the pandemic.
An audience of more than 3,000 people electrified the CCIB in Barcelona with the finals of the VALORANT Rising Series and the ESET Iberian Cup of League of Legends during the weekend of November 13 and 14.
In December, LVP reached an agreement with ViacomCBS Networks International to drive the gaming area of VidCon Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) for the coming three editions, one of the leading events in the Middle East that brings together content creators, industry representatives and digital platforms.
“2021 has been a historic year for LVP and for the eSports sector at a national and international level. In Spain alone we’ve generated the professional ecosystem for the development of a VALORANT league in 2022 as well as laying the foundations to guarantee delivery of the best Superliga in history, in addition to recovering face-to-face events.
In Latin America we have taken an additional step forward in the professionalization of all tournament structures, producing excellent audience figures and in addition, we’ve produced some of the best videogaming tournaments for third parties in the world”, explains Jordi Soler, CEO of LVP.
Growth in Latin America
But Spain wasn’t the only region in which the League of Legends scene grew, having al
so experienced promising results in Latin America, where LVP operates the national leagues in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.
A reflection of this growth came with the 2021 Master Flow League of Argentina where the company witnessed the very first Boca-River Superclásico in the history of eSports, the Telcel de México Honor Division increased 76% in minutes watched and, among others, Movistar entered as title sponsor of the Golden League of Colombia, a competition that reached more than 1.7 million unique viewers accumulated throughout broadcasts in 2021, 55% more than the previous year.
On a sporting level, Team Aze and Globant Emerald Team rose from the LVP national leagues to LLA 2022, the highest continental League of Legends competition in Latin America.
Riot Games made a firm commitment to LVP in 2021 with the announcement that LVP will continue as operator of the leagues in the region until at least 2024 and that it will also organize the Central American and Caribbean league.
In 2021, LVP also operated the national Free Fire leagues in the region and, together with Garena, produced the Free Fire League, the biggest mobile gaming league in Latin America.
Looking ahead to 2022, LVP and Garena have launched Free Fire Challengers (North and South), two tournaments set to ensure the further development of the mobile device gaming ecosystem professionalization which will connect with the Free Fire League.
In addition, together with Electronic Arts, LVP was responsible for the production of the Global Series finals in South America, the region’s biggest tournament; produced the first-ever edition of the eLiga BBVA MX 2021, the official league of EA Sports FIFA in Mexico; and also, in association with the NFL, participated in the organization of American football’s renowned Madden Challenger.
Only recently, LVP also announced that it will be in charge of the production of CONMEBOL eLibertadores 2022, one of the most important FIFA 22 tournaments in South America.
Brand confidence
Throughout 2021, several big-name brands have collaborated with LVP, thereby contributing to achieving audience stats targets and completing the professionalization process of the eSports sector globally.
In Spain, brands such as MediaMarkt, Intel, ESET, OMEN, El Corte Inglés, Mahou, Openbank, KitKat, Domino’s, Takis, Magnum and Cacaolat, have pledged their support to LVP tournaments.
In Latin America, major corporations such as Telcel, Flow, Tigo, Entel, Movistar, Discover or Claro, among others, have delivered a significant boost to the sector through LVP.