Elite League Season 2 and the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational split viewership, limiting both tournaments' audiences
On August 4th in Lima, the Elite League's second season concluded. Despite having the largest prize pool for a Dota 2 event in Latin America, it was less popular than the first. Fewer participants and the absence of top European teams led to a drop in viewer engagement.
Adding to the issue, the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational in China, featuring top teams, was held at the same time. The overlap of these major events led to competition for the same audience, reducing viewership for both.
Elite League Season 2 Viewership Results
The Elite League Season 2 had an $800,000 prize pool, the largest for a Dota 2 tournament in Latin America, surpassing the $500,000 of The Lima Major 2023. The event featured a mix of local and international teams like Team Liquid, OG, nouns, and Shopify Rebellion. However, the roster was weaker than the first season, as many top teams opted out. Xtreme Gaming, Team Spirit, and G2.iG competed in the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational, while Gaimin Gladiators, Team Falcons, and Tundra Esports took a break after the Riyadh Masters 2024.
Team Liquid, the main favorite for Elite League Season 2, delighted their fans by securing a long-awaited victory after a series of second-place finishes. They triumphed over 1win with a score of 3-2 in the final match, earning $240,000. This win marked Team Liquid's first championship title since ESL One Germany 2020, with their most recent LAN victory being at MDL Macau 2019. Meanwhile, 1win received $120,000 for their second-place finish, the largest prize in the team's history.
Viewership for Elite League Season 2 fell significantly compared to the first tournament. The recent event garnered just 5.7 million Hours Watched, which is three times lower than that of the inaugural Elite League held in April. Several factors contributed to this drop, including fewer participants, reduced broadcast time, and lower average viewership.
The average number of viewers for Season 2 decreased by 53% compared to the first season, and peak viewership dropped by 44%. These reductions were largely due to the absence of many high-profile teams.
The main languages for the broadcasts were Russian, Spanish, and English. Spanish commentary was particularly dominant, with a 38% larger share compared to English. This was largely due to the number of local teams that attracted Spanish-speaking audiences. Regarding streaming platforms, Twitch and Kick both saw slight increases in their viewership share, with Kick capturing over 4% of the tournament's total watch time.
Elite League tournaments comparison
Why did viewership numbers decline? There were a few key factors. Firstly, the number of broadcast channels decreased slightly in Season 2. Additionally, Season 2 lacked coverage from Nix, a top Russian-language community caster whose channel was the most popular during the first event. Filipino player Kuku, who had drawn up to 10,000 viewers at peak times in the first tournament, also did not cover the event this time.
Viewership on secondary official channels also saw a decline. For instance, peak viewership on the betboom_ru2 channel dropped from 30,200 to 10,700 concurrent viewers. Similarly, the audience for popular Filipino YouTuber KuyaNic decreased by roughly threefold.
Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational Viewership Results
Another factor contributing to the low viewership for Elite League Season 2 was the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational in China, held at the same time with a $500,000 prize pool. Although this tournament had only 10 teams, it included a slightly higher-profile lineup than the event in Peru, featuring teams such as Team Spirit, Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro, and Xtreme Gaming.
The main excitement of the event centered on the matchups between Team Spirit and Xtreme Gaming. The teams faced off twice in the playoffs, with Xtreme Gaming winning both encounters. Matches between Team Spirit and Chinese teams are particularly engaging for viewers due to their rich history. Team Spirit has previously faced PSG.LGD in major tournament finals, and now regularly competes against Xtreme Gaming. This rivalry is especially significant for the Chinese carry player Ame, who has battled Team Spirit as part of both teams.
Xtreme Gaming clinched the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational title and earned $152,500. So far in 2024, the Chinese team has accumulated over $1.46 million in prize money.
The Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational achieved 2.9 million Hours Watched, which is half of the 5.7 million HW recorded for Elite League Season 2. The average viewership for the Chinese tournament was 25% lower than that of the Peru event, though peak viewership was slightly higher at 133,500 viewers.
A notable aspect of the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational was the dominance of Russian broadcasts, which accounted for over 51% of the total watch time. In contrast, Russian broadcasts comprised only 34% of Elite League Season 2. The share of English-language broadcasts was similar for both tournaments, while Spanish-language coverage was minimal for the Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational. However, the tournament saw strong Ukrainian-language coverage, which made up over 10% of the watch time.
Interestingly, both Elite League Season 2 and Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational featured several shared channels. Community casters such as just_ns, KuyaNic, and Gorgc covered both events. Additionally, the official Russian-language broadcasts for both tournaments were provided by the BetBoom studio.
Elite League Season 2 and Clavision Snow Ruyi Invitational comparison
In modern esports, it's rare to see two major tournaments overlap in the same game, as organizers usually avoid such scheduling conflicts to prevent dividing the audience. However, with the recent cancellation of the DPC format, we may see more of these overlaps in the future.
