League of Legends Hits 1 Billion Views on Twitch and How Will the Crypto Space Benefit from It?

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The Twitch channel for the League of Legends developer Riot Games just surpassed 1 billion views on Twitch to set a new record as the first channel to do so. League of Legends (LoL) has continued to grow in popularity over the years as it’s made its way into the competitive world of “eSports,” a high-level competition of gaming with incredible prize pool sizes.

But this record breaking moment for Riot Games isn’t just important for LoL and the fanbase at large—it could also benefit the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry as viewership continues to grow. One major aspect that benefits the cryptocurrency world is the increase of blockchain-related partnerships with big names in the gaming industry. Let’s look at some of the ways below.

League of Legends and Crypto Exposure

Though graphic artists, writers, and designers don’t like being paid in “exposure,” the industry must acknowledge the benefits of increased awareness for an entire industry. Instead of offering a single designer “exposure,” the cryptocurrency industry as a whole is slated to gain more exposure and awareness across the board. With LoL growing both its player base and viewership base, the number of streamers on Twitch is likely to only increase too.

Ask anyone who watches Twitch streams with some regularity and they’ll tell you that even big-name streamers rely heavily on donations and contributions from fans. One of the disrupting factors about Twitch is that the platform facilitates crowdfunding for streamers on top of advertisement revenue.

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On Twitch, streamers have different ways they prefer to accept donations and one of the newest additions to the scene is crypto. StreamLabs, one of the most popular streaming application development teams in the industry, recently announced that all streamers are now able to accept cryptocurrency donations via their application run through Coinbase. Though this could be done before by including wallet addresses in a streamer’s description, the process has never been this simple for newcomers to donate crypto. As LoL grows in popularity on Twitch and more streamers gain recognition, the number of gamers exposed to cryptocurrency (who may otherwise never have been before) will only continue to grow.

League of Legends partners with a blockchain-based platform

Besides basic exposure to the concept of cryptocurrencies, there are other blockchain-based projects launching that will directly affect the way gamers approach their games. BUFF is just one example of how the crypto community can capitalize on the impressive number of viewers for LoL.

BUFF is developing a platform that acts as an overlay for many of the games that players already enjoy but brings a new cryptocurrency into the equation. Likening itself to a “frequent flyer program” for gamers that rewards those who play a lot of video games, there’s a good chance the gaming community could start seeing more of their favorite streamers utilizing the network once it’s live.

BUFF partnered with Overwolf, who develops overlays and add-ons for games, to create a system where gamers get paid in crypto for playing. Since Twitch streamers and gamers are always looking for ways to benefit from their time playing online (advertisements in the stream, viewer donations, sponsorships, etc.), BUFF will offer them another way to monetize content without detracting from the viewership experience. Not only will it not be intrusive like a mid-stream advertisement, but as more streamers start taking advantage of the platform, so too will their viewers.

If you’re watching your favorite streamer on Twitch or YouTube and you hear them talking about earning cryptocurrency just by playing the games that they’re already playing, then that’s likely to be a great attention-grabber for the crypto industry. With an influx of gamers looking to take advantage of the crypto boom and start earning cryptocurrency on their own, the market can expand further.

One of the benefits of BUFF (in particular) and cryptocurrencies (more broadly) is that, unlike standard in-game digital currencies, the coins earned while playing can then be used to buy items from other games or even be bought, sold, and traded on cryptocurrency exchanges.

The Takeaway

Because of the tightening connection between the gaming and cryptocurrency worlds, an increase in gaming viewership is likely to benefit the crypto industry as well. LoL is breaking records on Twitch and holding some of the largest competitive events of our times. If the game continues to grow in size, recognition, and viewership, then the cryptocurrency community is likely to benefit at the same time and experience growth.

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BUFF already has LoL as one of their included games for the platform and more are likely to come, but they’re not the only ones that can benefit from the boom. Other projects like Play2Live, who are building a decentralized streaming platform of their own, can use a viewer-heavy game to start implementing the first steps of adoption on their platform. Likewise, Gimli, which is another blockchain-based project, is getting in on the increased number of streaming viewers by creating a system where users can stream games, fund competitions of their own, and place wagers on others playing.

Regardless of what’s going on in the rest of the cryptocurrency space, an increase in viewership for online games is likely to be substantially beneficial for the crypto community as a whole.

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