The Play-In Stage of the RLCS 2026 – World Championship averaged nearly 31% more viewers than the same phase last year. Notably, last year’s finalist Team Falcons played a significant role in boosting viewership, with the Play-In Stage showing growth across all major metrics compared to the previous year, as reported by Esports Charts.
RLCS 2026 – World Championship Play-In sees increased viewership across key metrics
The initial phase of the largest event in the 2026 Rocket League season reached 173.2K Peak Viewers, marking a rise of over 40.5% from the 2025 edition. Furthermore, the Play-In Stage saw a 30.88% increase in Average Viewers compared to the previous year.
The RLCS 2026 – World Championship’s Play-In phase also amassed over 782K Hours Watched, indicating a 46.5% increase from the RLCS 2025 – World Championship despite running for just 35 more minutes.
Viewers’ attention was particularly focused on the 2025 World Championship runner-up, Team Falcons, who narrowly qualified for the event based on the Middle East and North Africa Points Ranking. This Saudi Arabian team won both matches and advanced to the Group Stage.
Interestingly, the only matches to surpass 150K Peak Viewers during the Play-In Stage involved Team Falcons. FUT Esports, Virtus.pro, and Bigodes also progressed to the Group Stage without losing a match.
English, Spanish, French, and Arabic all saw increases in Hours Watched compared to the previous year. Spanish experienced the most significant growth, surpassing French to become the second-most watched language as fans followed the journey of Mate y Tapa, who unfortunately did not advance from the Play-In Stage.
Despite their elimination, Mate y Tapa featured in the third- and fourth-most popular matches at the RLCS 2026 – World Championship’s Play-In phase.
While Twitch maintained its position as the leading platform in terms of watch time, TikTok saw notable growth. The official English channel played a key role in this increase, with a remarkable year-on-year watch time growth of over 1397%.
RLCS 2026 – World Championship Group Stage matches
All Round 1 matches of the Group Stage have been completed so far, with FURIA Esports and NRG Esports both holding perfect 2:0 records.
Here is the schedule for the remaining Group Stage Round 2 games, all of which are set to take place on September 17:
Group A
Group D
The winners of each group secure spots in the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs. The second- and third-placed teams from each group will move to the Lower Bracket of the Playoffs, while the fourth-placed teams from each group will be eliminated.