Without The International to look forward to, Dota 2 had become somewhat quiet on the viewership charts over the last several months. This week, it surged back to life amidst an action-packed weekend that also happened to include the start of E3.
Twitch’s Top Channel – WePlayDota
At this point, any time Twitch’s perennial king is knocked off his throne, it is a noteworthy event. This week’s usurper was the WePlay Dota 2 AniMajor – the second Major of this year’s Dota Pro Circuit. The event brought international teams back together in person, a moment that has consistently drawn a crowd on Twitch so far this year.
For Dota 2, that boost came in the form of 7.77M hours watched on the primary channel and another 5.27M for the Russian-language broadcast.
Also of note, this weekend saw the kickoff of E3 2021, the biggest video game industry trade show. On Twitch, the majority of E3 content consumption comes in the form of live reactions, but the event’s main channel still generated nearly 2M hours watched on its own.
Twitch’s Top Content – Just Chatting
While the AniMajor was enough to boost Dota 2 into seventh place this week, the rest of the Top 10 is maintaining a relatively stable status quo. That is, except for the Special Events category which generated 20.89M hours watched.
This is the category under which streamers will broadcast when watching and reacting to E3 announcements. These figures perfectly encapsulate the value and reach of co-streams and react content. While there will always be a concern over the lack of control for the message of a broadcast when it is in the hands of a co-streamer or reaction channel, the added awareness and engagement will often outweigh any risk.
