Steven R. March 29, 2019
The viewership totals are in for Dota 2’s latest big tournament, the DreamLeague Major.
According to the Esports Observer, the event totalled over 10 million combined hours watched on Twitch. This includes both the English and Russian language broadcasts of the event, with the two languages enjoying comparable viewership for much of the tournament’s duration.
Naturally, viewership peaked for the final days of the event which also saw viewership of the Russian language broadcast eclipsing that of the English cast by a sizable margin. This can be at least partially credited to the early exits suffered by almost every team from western Europe and North America, as well as top Russian team Virtus.pro making a run to the grand finals. This follows a similar pattern to the viewership numbers of the Kuala Lumpur Major, which also saw viewership peak on the Russian broadcast surrounding Virtus.pro’s showdown with Team Secret in the grand finals.
The first round of the lower bracket saw The International 2017 champions Team Liquid, enduring favorites Natus Vincere, and North America’s Forward Gaming eliminated. Peter “ppd” Dager's Ninjas in Pyjamas were sent home shortly thereafter.
North America’s other representatives were both eliminated before reaching the main stage of the tournament. J.Storm survived two rounds in the lower bracket before being eliminated by Team Secret. Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses suffered a shocking upset at the hands of Keen Gaming and were later eliminated by Virtus.pro in the lower bracket.
The tournament was ultimately won by China’s Vici Gaming, who defeated Virtus.pro in the grand finals. Though Vici Gaming won in dramatic fashion with a run that started with a victory at the StarLadder Minor, the organization does not have a substantial fan following in the west.
Though the event posted generally strong numbers, it is difficult to compare and contrast its viewership on the whole with this season’s other majors, which had portions of the events broadcast on other platforms outside Twitch.
The next Dota 2 major is the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, which begins on May 4.