Call of Duty League set a new season-high for peak viewership this past weekend with the Toronto Ultra-Optic Chicago matchup, as the Activision Blizzard-owned property continues to see momentum in its second year.
The matchup that the Ultra won 3-2 was the Round 5 game of the Stage 3 Tournament that was eventually won in the grand finals by the Atlanta FaZe. For the Ultra-Optic match, Activision Blizzard reports that it earned a peak concurrent viewership of 136K on YouTube.
That bests the prior high this season, the FaZe-Optic match on the opening weekend of the season that earned a peak concurrent of 131K.
Average viewership figures were not immediately available. Still, the new high for concurrent viewership will buoy Activision Blizzard and CDL team owners, as CDL is increasingly being viewed as the gem of the Activision Blizzard Esports properties, supplanting Overwatch League.
It also underscores that Optic continues to be perhaps the best draw in the league, as it has been a team in both of the matches that set season highs for viewership.
While a season-high, the Ultra-Optic match didn’t break the all-time CDL viewership record; that mark is currently held by last year’s championship game in which the Dallas Empire beat FaZe. That match earned a peak concurrent of 330K viewers with an average audience of 206,000 viewers.
Activision Blizzard is in the second year of its three-year, $160M USD media rights deal with YouTube. The video game maker is looking at expanding the 12-team CDL as soon as next season, sources say.
