- More than 900K fans turned in to see the match between Team Spirit and Virtus.pro
- A large part of the viewers traditionally come from the CIS region
- It’s hoped this hype will also increase the number of concurrent Dota 2 players
As The International 12 is slowly approaching its final stages, more and more fans are tuning into the event’s broadcasts and boosting its viewership stats.
TI12 Viewership Rises
The world of Dota 2 is currently enthralled by the ongoing The International 2023. Eight teams are still in the struggle for the Aegis of Champions of the event as the tournament is nearing its apogee, which will be hosted in the Climate Pledge Arena next weekend. With the hype surrounding the tournament, many players are tuning in to watch The International, and viewership records are being set.
Fans have been flocking to see the best teams in the world compete for a piece of the $3 million prize pool. According to stats tracking platform Esports Charts, more than 954,000 viewers tuned in to watch the match between Team Spirit and Virtus.pro, which saw the former secure a top-six spot over their regional rivals. “The Road to The International 2023 matches accumulated 37.7 million Hours Watched and drew 452.6K Average Viewers,” the report states.
It should be noted that Esports Charts does not record Chinese viewership, so the actual viewer numbers will likely be much higher. However, considering LGD Gaming and Azure Ray will go head-to-head this week and a Chinese team will be guaranteed to finish in the top three this year, interest from the region will rise even more.
That being said, the CIS region is doing the heavy lifting for viewership currently. This is in large part because the match times were adjusted so that they are slightly more convenient for countries in Europe and Central Asia. This has resulted in TI12 already breaking viewership records last week. “Overall, the Russian-speaking audience currently contributes the most to the overall tournament statistics. Russian-language broadcasts surpass English-language broadcasts in Peak Viewers by almost twice,” the report reads.
All of this begs the question of how TI12’s popularity would impact the number of players in the game. Last year’s TI saw one of the largest leaps in active players as concurrent players passed the 1 million threshold, according to Steam Charts. It remains to be seen if TI12 could reach these figures again, a tall order, considering this year’s event does not come with a battle pass, which has always been a huge driver in the player numbers.
The International 12 will resume on Friday, October 27, and will see Gaimin Gladiators, BetBoom, VP, and Nouns up first for elimination.