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Beta testing for League of Legends’ 
new “auto-battler” strategy game mode called Teamfight Tactics has made waves on Twitch since testing began about two weeks ago, signaling a potential shift in viewership for strategy-based videogames.
Riot Games announced that it planned to release the game mode after Drodo Studio’s Dota 2 mod called Dota Auto Chess started to quickly build popularity, and a sizeable subscription base. Meanwhile, the game also followed Valve creating its own standalone game based on Dota Auto Chess called Dota Underlords.
Since Teamfight Tactics’ began testing, the game mode has produced 2M hours watched on Twitch every day and attracted popular influencers known to play strategy-based games like Hearthstone and Auto Chess. Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang, most known for his time playing Hearthstone, has led the way in terms of viewership for the mode with 1.8M hours watched from June 18-28.
The second most-watched broadcaster to play the game is Auto Chess and Hearthstone player Byron “Reckful” Berstein. Other notable influencers to play the game include a combination of traditional LoL players like Michael “imaqtpie” Santana and Hearthstone gamers like Sebastian “Forsen” Fors.
With Teamfight Tactics being a game mode in LoL and not its own standalone title, the beta for it seems to be stealing viewership from LoL to some degree. In the weeks prior to the beta’s release, viewership for LoL, assisted by esports competition in the LoL Championship Series (LCS) and LoL European Championship (LEC), was close to 19M hours watch or higher per week to start June.
In the first seven days of the TFT beta being accessible, LoL viewership was down to 16.4M hours watched, and the new game mode had reached 15.4M hours watched. That being said, It’s not uncommon for a new game to see short term success at the expense of an established title.
Fortnite experienced similar cannibalization of its viewership early in the year when Apex Legends was the flavor of the month in February, but Epic Games’ more established battle royale game has since reclaimed its Twitch prominence.
Due to the strategy-heavy gameplay of TFT, its likely competition in the esports and Twitch space will be from online card games like Hearthstone and MTG: Arena or other auto-battlers.
Valve’s auto-battler, Dota Underlords, has made its way to Twitch with significantly less of a thunderous entrance. Open beta testing for the standalone game began this month.
While it’s managed to consistently produce more than 100K hours watched per day, it’s best day in terms of viewership was just 646K hours watched for one of its first days on Twitch. Hearthstone, a likely competitor for the new title in an up-and-coming gaming genre, had more hours watched on that day.
TFT, on the other hand, has shown that it’s in a league of its own compared to those other strategy-based games. Shortly before the beta for TFT began Hearthstone saw a slight dip in viewership that it still hasn’t recovered from as streamers find themselves with increased viewership from playing the newer game.
It’s way too early to say that Riot Games has won the race to leverage the rising popularity of this new auto-battler space in strategy gaming, but viewership of the game on Twitch certainly suggests that the power of Riot Games and LoL has been able to position TFT in the fast lane with a strong lead in the pack.
