Twitch's #2 streamer Jynxzi hit 417,847 concurrent viewers on May 11, 2026, the highest peak of his seven-year career, while hosting a 40-creator League of Legends tournament that crossed him through 10 million Twitch followers mid-broadcast, per Streams Charts. The tournament-wide peak across co-streams hit 921,879. That single creator-run bracket outdrew the combined peaks of LEC Spring 2026, LCS Spring 2026, and the CBLOL 2026 Cup, per Esports Charts. Riot Games supplied the drops.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- Jynxzi's 40-creator League tournament peaked at 417,847 viewers on his personal channel, the highest of his seven-year career.
- The tournament-wide peak across 120+ co-streams hit 921,879, outdrawing the combined peaks of LEC Spring 2026, LCS Spring 2026, and the CBLOL Cup.
- Jynxzi crossed 10 million Twitch followers mid-broadcast, adding 300,000 new followers in a single stream.
- Riot Games co-signed the event with official Twitch Drops including the legendary Inkshadow Master Yi skin, the first time the publisher has handed that level of support to a non-endemic creator tournament.
- The prize was a Twitch sub-gift, 250 subs per winning team member. Team xQc took the bracket.
- Creator-led esports is now outdrawing publisher-led esports. The leagues have a packaging problem, not a talent problem.
What actually happened?
The Jynxzi Streamer League of Legends Tourney went live at 4 PM ET on May 11 with a 40-creator bracket. The lineup pulled names from outside the LoL ecosystem, MrBeast, Ludwig Ahgren, ohnePixel, Emiru, MoistCr1TiKaL, alongside former LoL pros Sneaky, Doublelift, and Pobelter, per Streams Charts. The event was co-streamed on over 120 unique channels despite only 40 players in the bracket. Riot Games co-signed the broadcast with two official Twitch Drops, a "Look Inward" emote after 30 minutes of watch time and the legendary Inkshadow Master Yi skin after two hours.
The numbers from Esports Charts are absurd. Average viewership across the nine-hour broadcast hit 539,451, with 4.72 million hours watched. The combined peak ranks the event as the fourth most-watched LoL tournament of 2026 and the single most-watched in the West. Team xQc beat Team Zoil 28-4 in a 27-minute Game 3, with xQc named Finals MVP, per Sportskeeda.
The prize, by the way, was a sub-gift. Jynxzi gifted 250 Twitch subs to each member of the winning squad. No cash purse, no LCS-style player salary, no production budget you'd recognize from a Riot-run broadcast. Just a Twitch chat and a bracket.
Why does this matter for creators?
The institutions are losing the audience war to the creators they're supposed to feed. A single Twitch streamer with a Google Doc bracket and a sub-gift prize pool outdrew three Riot-operated regional pro leagues combined. Riot didn't compete with the event. Riot supplied the drops.
The economic gravity has flipped. The league used to pay the player. Now the creator pays the audience, and the publisher pays the creator (in skins) for access to that audience. That's a different business entirely.
For creators reading this, the lesson isn't "go play League." The lesson is that hosting is the new uploading. The fastest path to a record-breaking moment in 2026 isn't a perfect solo video. It's being the room where 39 other creators show up.
"I've been streaming for 7 years and this is the most viewers I've ever hit, I never in a million years thought it'd be for League of Legends."
Jynxzi, Twitch streamer and tournament host, via Sheep Esports
Where does this go from here?
Jynxzi's tournament franchise is now a viewership engine. His March CS:GO event peaked at 481,110. His April Valorant tournament peaked at 301,832, outdrawing VCT Americas in English-language views. The League event eclipsed both.
| Jynxzi tournament | Peak viewers | Date |
|---|---|---|
| CS:GO Streamer Tourney | 481,110 | March 2026 |
| Valorant Streamer Tourney | 301,832 | April 2026 |
| League Tourney (personal channel) | 417,847 | May 2026 |
| League Tourney (all co-streams) | 921,879 | May 2026 |
Expect a queue of publishers willing to ship drops for access to that audience. The bigger pattern is creator-led esports eating publisher esports. When a Rainbow Six Siege streamer can pull more eyeballs to a casual League bracket than Riot can pull to its own regional leagues, per Esports Charts, the leagues have a packaging problem, not a talent problem. Jynxzi added 300,000 Twitch followers in a single stream by being the room where 39 other creators showed up.
Riot's complicity is the part nobody is talking about. The publisher could have ignored the event. Instead it shipped a legendary skin for two hours of watch time and watched the event become a recruiting funnel for new League players. The next league to copy that playbook wins the decade.
What does Fanvault think?
This is what creator-native distribution looks like when it works. Jynxzi didn't grind the algorithm on his own channel, he hosted 39 other creators on his. The tournament wasn't the product, the tournament was distribution, and 300K new Twitch followers in one stream is the receipt. Fanvault is built for exactly this moment, where a creator's storefront, authenticated memorabilia auctions, and Telegram-based automation layer turn a viral peak into recurring revenue at 8% per transaction (creators keep 92%).
The league pays the player. The creator pays the audience. That's the new map.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won Jynxzi's League of Legends tournament?
Team xQc won the bracket, defeating Team Zoil 28-4 in a 27-minute Game 3 final. The winning squad of xQc, Kingsman, rayasianboy, Sapnap, and AloisNL took the prize,
How many viewers did Jynxzi's tournament actually pull?
Jynxzi's personal Twitch channel peaked at
Did Riot Games officially sponsor the event?
Riot didn't sponsor the tournament in the traditional sense, but the publisher co-signed the broadcast with official Twitch Drops. Viewers earned a "Look Inward" emote after 30 minutes of watch time and the legendary Inkshadow Master Yi skin after two hours, per Hotspawn. It's the first time Riot has handed that level of drops support to a non-endemic creator-run tournament.
How did Jynxzi cross 10 million Twitch followers?
He crossed the milestone mid-broadcast at roughly 21:55 ET on May 11, 2026, picking up over 300,000 new followers in that single stream. He had no words on camera. As of May 2026, Jynxzi ranks #2 on Twitch by global follower count and is the second most-watched streamer on the platform, per Streams Charts.
Why does a creator tournament matter for the broader creator economy?
A single creator with a Google Doc bracket and a Twitch chat outdrew three Riot-operated regional pro leagues combined. The economic gravity has flipped: the league used to pay the player, now the creator pays the audience, and the publisher pays the creator in skins for access to that audience.
For creators in 2026, the playbook is hosting other creators, not grinding alone. The tournament wasn't the product. The tournament was distribution, and the 300K new followers Jynxzi added in one stream are the receipt.