BLAST’s promising entry to Dota 2 shows potential for high 2025 viewership
One of esports’ most well-known tournament organizers, BLAST, recently officially entered the Dota 2 scene and hosted their first event of the new BLAST Slam series. After years of strengthening their reputation in the Counter-Strike scene, BLAST’s first entry to Dota 2 received strong viewership for a new third-party event.
BLAST entered esports by hosting immediate high-quality and engaging events. After years of building up a reputation with their third-party events, they were tapped by Valve to host the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, which was the only Counter-Strike major of the year. They also expanded into Rainbow Six Siege last year, hosting the BLAST R6 Major. Now, the esports event organizer is hoping to make a splash in Dota 2.
BLAST’s calendar for Dota 2 already stretches through 2026. Throughout the next two years, they will host another 8 tournaments through their BLAST Slam series: each event handing out a prize pool of $1,000,000. Their recent Blast Slam I was not the most popular Dota 2 event of the year, but at 200K Peak Viewers, it shows promise to become a popular series for fans next year.
The Slam I tournament maintained 97.7K Average Viewers for its almost 50 hours of broadcasting time. The Gauntlet Playoff format of the event was particularly highly watched; the gauntlet format is longer than a typical playoffs bracket, allowing these high-stakes matches more airtime to generate viewership. BetBoom Team enjoyed particularly strong viewership for their playoffs matches, with their two matches ranking as the two most popular.
Viewership demographics for the tournament were similar to the general Dota 2 scene. English and Russian-speaking audiences generated the vast majority of total watch time, with others contributing from Spanish-speaking and Asian audiences. A significant portion of the YouTube Live viewership for the event came from a selection of Southeast Asian countries.
While BLAST Slam I’s viewership settled at just over 200K at its peak, many other event organizers in Dota 2 have reached well over 300,000 at peaks this year, and some much closer to half a million total. Compared to other established third-party series in the Dota 2 esports scene, BLAST Slam I fell slightly short. While the inaugural BLAST Slam I tournament did not launch itself to the top of Dota 2 esports viewership, its results are still comparable to many other third-party tournaments.
The BLAST Slam I was not one of the top 10 most popular Dota 2 events of the year, but it was not far behind established events such as DreamLeague and ESL One. The gap between these events shows promise for BLAST Slam, who are finding their feet in Dota 2 broadcasting. In the coming year, with its lengthy calendar of events, BLAST Slam could become a staple for Dota 2 viewers.
The next Slam event will begin in February 2025. Throughout the rest of the year, BLAST will hold another 4 events, each hosting 10 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams. Esports Charts’ database of viewership will continue to track BLAST’s progress through their new MOBA scene, which has long been one of esports’ most popular titles.
