Global tournament organizer ESL has reported a 215.5% increase in average-minute-audience (AMA) viewership for ESL Pro League Season 11. The company reported an AMA of 164,494 for its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive competition, up from 52,140 for Season 10, which concluded in late 2019 (which ESL reported was a 39% increase over Season 9). These figures exclude China.
The latest ESL Pro League season took place between March 16 and April 12, in the midst of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which forced the league to cancel its grand finals event in Denver, Colorado. Instead, the league moved entirely online and held regional finals for North America and Europe, which were won by Team Liquid and Fnatic, respectively.
Earlier this year, ESL signed an agreement it refers to as the “Louvre Agreement” with 13 CS:GO organizations, making them stakeholders in the league.
Last September, ESL and sister company DreamHack partnered with Nielsen for sponsorship valuation and media measurement. As part of that agreement, ESL began releasing AMA figures, joining the likes of Activision Blizzard and Riot Games in working to make it the standard viewership metric for esports broadcasts.
