Team Spirit vs. Virtus.pro becomes the most popular match of Road to The International 2023
The biggest Dota 2 competition of the year, The International 2023, is nearing its conclusion. Just eight of the twenty teams are left, and they will battle it out in front of thousands of live spectators at the stadium. Though it hasn't happened yet, the tournament will most likely hit one million Peak Viewers on the first day of the final round.
Viewership statistics of The International 2023
The Playoffs of The International 2023 started on October 20. The teams played one round in the upper bracket and two rounds in the lower bracket, with the games taking place at the Seattle Convention Center's Summit venue. Although this stage is part of the main tournament, it is called the Road to The International: the actual World Championship, or more specifically its final part, will take place on October 27-29 at the Climate Pledge Arena.
Road to The International 2023 Stage Area / Photo: twitter.com/dota2ti
The first part of the Playoffs has brought several surprises to the viewers. Firstly, not a single team from South America and Southeast Asia will be playing in the main arena. Secondly, teams from China — LGD Gaming and Azure Ray — have been performing very well and easily made it through the first round. They will now face each other in the upper bracket Semifinals, meaning that at least one Chinese team will definitely make it to the Top 3. It's worth noting that Chinese teams have had a very weak season, with only two representatives of the region qualifying for the final tournament in Seattle. This is an absolute record low in the history of The International, as China usually had 4-6 teams represented.
It is worth noting the result of Tundra Esports as the champions of last year's The International could not defeat Entity in the lower bracket and finished the tournament in 13th-16th place. On the other hand, the American team nouns exceeded many viewers' expectations: it performed better than the American teams Shopify Rebellion and TSM, which made it to the World Championship based on DPC points.
Road to The International 2023 viewership results
The Road to The International 2023 matches accumulated 37.7 million Hours Watched and drew 452.6K Average Viewers. The most popular series of the tournament at this stage was the derby between Team Spirit and Virtus.pro in the first round of Playoffs, which 954K Peak Viewers watched.
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, despite the tournament's inconvenient time zone for viewers from Eastern Europe. It is likely that the numbers for Russian-language broadcasts will increase even more during the matches at the Climate Pledge Arena, as Team Spirit, BetBoom Team, and Virtus.pro are still competing in the tournament.
In the final part of the tournament, eight teams will compete: three representatives from Eastern Europe, two representatives from Western Europe and China, as well as a team from North America. You can follow the progress of the tournament here.
