Mentioned in this article
World of Warcraft posted the most hours watched in a week by any title on Twitch in the past two years, with more than 45M following the release of Classic.
Meanwhile, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major in Berlin continues to ramp up viewership as the final week of action approaches.
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.
A Whole New World
World of Warcraft posted the most hours watched by any game in a week this year. Last week, Dota 2 recorded the year’s high of 34M hours watched on Twitch thanks to The International’s main event, but the release of Classic proved to be more powerful with 47.1M hours watched.
Not only was it the most hours watched one form of content has had this year, but it’s higher than any form of content from last year as well. Only four titles have managed to surpass the 30M hours watched mark on Twitch in a week: Fortnite did so in July of last year, and Dota 2 has done so during the main event of TI in the past two years. Meanwhile, Apex Legends broke the 30M mark during its strong, but short-lived, launch in February.
Counter Strikes Back
On any other week of the year, StarLadder’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major in Berlin would have likely put Valve’s first-person shooter at the top of Twitch, but because of WoW Classic’s record-breaking launch, the game is playing second fiddle.
This past week was the second of three stages played for the competition, and for most Majors, the second stage serves as one with the combination of competitiveness and airtime that generates the highest overall hours watched totals.
This week’s third stage will almost assuredly have the highest peak viewership of the three stages as a champion is crowned and the finals will give the title a boost with a sizeable audience, but it could be expected that due to less live competition over the course of the week, this coming week could have fewer overall hours watched.
Been Caught Stealing
While WoW Classic managed to generate record-level numbers for Twitch this past week, it appears that the success of the massively multiplayer online game has been a detriment to other games in the short term.
Outside of CS:GO, other categories in the top 6 on Twitch this week were noticeably down from last week. “Just Chatting” saw a dip of 1.6M hours watched, and League of Legends declined by 2.3M. Meanwhile, Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto V each saw drops in viewership of 1.6M and 2M hours watched, respectively.
