The Play-In Stage of the RLCS 2026 - World Championship averaged almost 31% more viewers than the same phase last year. With last year's finalist Team Falcons among the main viewership drivers, the Play-In Stage recorded year-on-year growth across all major metrics, according to Esports Charts.
RLCS 2026 - World Championship Play-In viewership rises across key metrics
The opening phase of the biggest event of the 2026 Rocket League season reached 173.2K Peak Viewers, a jump of over 40.5% from the 2025 iteration. The Play-In Stage also attracted 30.88% more Average Viewers than last year.
Viewership dynamics from the RLCS 2026 - World Championship Play-In
The RLCS 2026 - World Championship's Play-In phase also generated just over 782K Hours Watched, an increase of 46.5% from the RLCS 2025 - World Championship despite running for just 35 more minutes.
Audience attention was heavily focused on the 2025 World Championship runner-up, Team Falcons, who just about made it to the event based on the Middle East and North Africa Points Ranking. The Saudi Arabian organization went on to win both of its matches and qualify for the Group Stage.
In fact, the two matches involving Team Falcons were the only ones to surpass 150K PV during the Play-In Stage. FUT Esports, Virtus.pro, and Bigodes also advanced to the Group Stage without losing a match.
Most popular matches from the RLCS 2026 - World Championship Play-In
English, Spanish, French, and Arabic all recorded year-on-year increases in Hours Watched. Spanish recorded the strongest growth, overtaking French to become the second-most watched language by watch time as fans followed the journey of Mate y Tapa, who could not make it out of 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 remained the leading platform by watch time, TikTok recorded notable growth. The official English channel was the main contributor to this increase, recording year-on-year watch time growth of more than 1397%.
RLCS 2026 - World Championship Group Stage matches
So far, all Round 1 matches of the Group Stage have been completed, with FURIA Esports and NRG Esports boasting spotless 2:0 records.
Here's the schedule for the rest of the Group Stage Round 2 games, which will all be held on September 17:
Group A
- Karmine Corp vs Spacestation Gaming
- Team Falcons vs MIBR
Group D
- Gentle Mates vs Virtus.pro
- Team Vitality vs Wildcard
The winner of each group qualifies for the Upper Bracket of the Playoffs. The second- and third-placed sides of each group qualify for the Lower Bracket of the Playoffs, while the fourth-placed team of each group is eliminated.