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Dota 2’s MDL Chengdu Major generated strong viewership across both English and Russian-language broadcasts to kick off the new Dota 2 Pro Circuit season.
Variety streamer Saqib “Lirik” Zahid harnessed the power of hype and nostalgia through a highly-viewed Age of Empires broadcast.
The StarCraft community tuned in for a grassroots-style event that not only generated plenty of Twitch viewership, but also drew several high-profile viewers in-person including Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and former Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Morhaime.
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.
Filipino Champs
Philippines-based organization TNC Predator took home the gold at the inaugural Dota 2 Major of the 2019-2020 season. Although top teams like OG were not in attendance, the MDL Chengdu Major still lead the week thanks to the underdog team’s run against heavily favored Chinese opponents.
Dota 2 is a unique game when it comes to alternate streams. Generally, the English language broadcast of an esports tournament will significantly outperform other broadcasts on Twitch, but the Russian-language stream of Dota 2 international events will usually contend with – and occasionally beat out – the English channel. In this case, the English stream generated 3.04M hours watched, with the Russian channel in second place at 2.34M.
Sure, I Remember
Nostalgia is a powerful force in every aspect of the games industry, and streaming is no exception. With the recent announcement of Age of Empires 4 – the first mainline sequel to the franchise in roughly 15 years – variety streamer Saqib “Lirik” Zahid leveraged nostalgia by broadcasting Age of Empires II. The old real-time-strategy title accounted for nearly half of Zahid’s viewership, helping him generate 1.62M hours watched over the course of the week.
You Can Always Go Home
StarCraft II may not be the dominant esports today, but has managed to sustain a dedicated community due in large part to its unique tournament ecosystem supported by events like HomeStory Cup. Last weekend’s HomeStory Cup XX gave StarCraft a rare appearance in the Top 10, generating 909.07K hours watched on the main channel of its organizer, TaKeTV.
The broadcast peaked at 32.44K max concurrent viewers during the finals on Sunday between Joona “Serral” Sotala and Riccardo “Reynor” Romiti – the first HomeStory Cup final to not feature at least one South Korean pro since Summer 2016.
