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The International helps Dota 2 produce the most hours watched for any game in a single week on Twitch so far this year.
Meanwhile, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has begun to see a boost in viewership as the “New Challenger” phase of the StarLadder Major Berlin begins.
The following content is ranked according to the total number of hours watched on Twitch from Monday to the following Sunday, with data compiled using TEO Access.
Go Big or Go Home
The International is Dota 2’s yearly premier tournament that produces the game’s strongest viewership on Twitch bar none, and the final week of action for it this year managed to help Dota 2 muster up the most hours watched that any game has seen in a single week all year.
Prior to this past week, the short-lived explosion of EA’s battle royale game Apex Legends generated more than 30M hours watched two weeks in a row, but it never hit the 34M hours watched mark that Dota 2 hit. Before Apex Legends’ release, Dota 2 was the last game to hit 30M hours watched in a week during TI 2018.
Striking First
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as an esport is most-known known for its twice-yearly “Major” events that span three weeks and begin with a “New Challengers” phase featuring 16 teams looking to qualify for eight spots in the next week’s phase.
This past week, the StarLadder Major Berlin kicked off with 2.9M hours watched on its main Twitch channel, and while the first phase of CS:GO Majors are typically the least-watched of the three, viewership for the event on Twitch helped CS:GO eclipse 10M hours watched for the first time since July 15-21, when ESL’s Intel Extreme Masters XIV Chicago took place.
Waiting on The World
World of Warcraft Classic launched on Monday, and viewership for the title last week suggested that viewers were ready for the nostalgic trip to begin. After failing to make it into the top 10 since the conclusion of the most recent raid race in July, WoW eked out a spot on the charts last week before taking over Twitch Monday night.
While it is yet to be seen what kind of long-lasting impact WoW Classic will have on Twitch, the game’s boost in viewership before it even launched is a positive sign for the game’s potential as a sustainable source of reach for WoW moving forward.
