Apex Legends esports viewership rose across the board in 2023 following several UK-based Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) events.
The UK had three Apex events this year – the ALGS Split 1 Playoffs (February), won by TSM and ALGS Split 2 Playoffs (July), won by DarkZero, at London’s Copper Box Arena, plus the ALGS Championship in Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena (again won by TSM).
Year 3 Apex Legends esports viewership numbers for 2023
EA has revealed that the Total Watch Time (TWT) of ALGS Year 3 was 47.9m hours, up 22% year-on-year.
“This was driven by a YoY increase of 3.8m hours across the Playoffs and Championship, and another 3.8m hour increase across the NA, EMEA, and APAC-N Pro Leagues,” EA said in its ALGS Year 3 announcement post.
The Average Minute Audience (AMA) of Year 3, which is essentially the number of people watching the ALGS at any given time while live, was 130,383, an increase of 13% year-on-year.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate that Year 3 was our biggest ALGS year yet by viewership and participation.”
EA on 2023 Apex Legends esports viewership
On YouTube, EA said the Total Watch Time of ALGS videos grew to 2.6m hours overall, up 18% year-on-year.
More teams also took part in open registration tournaments in Year 3 over Year 2, with an overall participation increase of 19% year-on-year.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate that Year 3 was our biggest ALGS year yet by viewership and participation, but we’re not stopping there – we’re just getting started,” EA added.
EA reveals Apex Legends ALGS Year 4 esports details
Looking ahead to 2024, and ALGS Year 4 will again feature three LAN events, the $1m Split 1 Playoffs, the $1m Split 2 Playoffs and the year-end $2m Championship, for a total prize pool of $4m.
Locations have not yet been revealed for the LANs, but EA has promised ‘representation from more regions than ever before’.
There will be at least one team from NA, EMEA, APAC N, APAC S, SA and China at each of the events in Year 4.
EA is also welcoming teams from China to the ALGS for Year 4, while South America will no longer be presented in the Pro League.
Year 4 of the ALGS will kick off with four online pre-season qualifier tournaments in each of the four Pro League regions, beginning in late November. Registration for these opens on October 23rd.
Also, yhe ALGS Challenger Circuit will run parallel to each Split of the Pro League regular season, providing teams with an opportunity to compete in open-registration tournaments for the chance to qualify into the Split 2 Pro League Qualifier in Split 1 or the Last Chance Qualifier in Split 2.
There’s more details on all of this in the socials announcement post and web page linked above.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
