The year has just begun, and there has already been a few big esports events. January had The Chongqing Major for Dota 2, the CS:GO IEM Katowice 2019 Qualifiers, and two major tournaments for Smash Bros Ultimate. So what were the biggest esports of January 2019 on Twitch? Stats from Newzoo shed some light on which games racked up the most hours watched for esports streams.

Biggest Esports of January 2019 on Twitch

1. Dota 2

Dota 2 attracted more esports viewers than any other game in January, mainly thanks to The Chongqing Major. The Major event had 16 teams battle it out for a $1,000,000 prize pool. Ultimately, Team Secret came out on top, beating Virtus.Pro in the Grand Finals. Dota 2 had 16.2 million esports hours watched in January.

2. League of Legends

Sitting close behind Dota 2, LoL racked up 15 million hours watched for esports streams on Twitch. This is likely due to many Spring leagues starting, such as the LCS, LJL, and LCL. There was also the National Electronic Sports Open, which ViCi Gaming won.

3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

January was a busy month for CS:GO. The IEM Katowice 2019 Qualifiers took place throughout the month. There was also iBUYPOWER Masters 2019, in which Liquid finally triumphed over longtime rivals Astralis. CS:GO had 9.9 milliion esports hours watched in January. February will likely be even bigger thanks to the IEM Katowice 2019 Major.

4. Hearthstone

The Blizzard digital card game still has a strong esports following. There were 3.6 million esports hours watched last month on Twitch for Hearthstone. This is likely due to the Hearthstone Wild Open 2019 Qualifiers which took place throughout January.

5. Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Super Smash Bros Ultimate just came out in December 2018, but there have already been multiple big tournaments. Smash Conference United and Glitch 6 took place last month, with wins by MkLeo and Tweek respectively. Overall, the game racked up 2 million esports hours watched on Twitch. February will likely be even bigger due to Genesis 6, the biggest Smash Ultimate event yet.

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