League of Legends dominate Dota 2 in the US

DOTA 2 might be grabbing all the headlines but it seems League of Legends is starting to dominate in the US MOBA gaming scene

It has recently been reported that League of Legends is the most popular online game in 21 US states according to data on Google trends. The game appears to be most popular in California, Hawaii, Washington, Nevada and Utah where people search for it the most.

The game has around 100 million monthly players while DOTA 2 has a little over 13 million as of June last year. The League of Legends World Championships last year was watched by around 43 million unique viewers which are an extremely impressive number for E-sports.

League of Legends has been gaining momentum extremely quickly over the past year and has nearly become as popular as professional sports. According to insights from Bwin, 69% of all E-sports bets were placed on League of Legends last year. By comparison, only 10% of bets were placed on DOTA 2 showing League of Legends’ immense popularity. 

However, DOTA 2 do get one-up on League of Legends at one point.  Although League of Legends is clearly dominating regarding popularity, DOTA 2 tournaments have indeed become the most lucrative for professional players. DOTA 2’s The International 2016 beat its record for biggest prize pool in 2016 by offering an astonishing US$20 million.