The biggest Dota 2 tournament in history — The International 2018, finished on August 25, which had $25,532,177 prize pool. The winner was OG, the European team, which defeated the Chinese team PSG.LGD in the Grand Final.
Many people thought that The International 2018 will lose a lot of viewers as the amount of common players has been decreasing dramatically for the past year. Fortunately, everything is ok — The International 2018 appeared to be more popular than the last year championship.
The growth is significant both for the Western and the Chinese audience. The main feature of The International 2018 is a large amount of commentators-amateurs broadcasts in Youtube and Twitch. For example, the popular Russian-speaking streamer EvilArthas had almost 70,000 viewers at the peak when the Russian team Virtus.Pro played. It is about ¼ from the official broadcast.
The International 2019 will be held in Shanghai. The convenient time zone for the Chinese viewers will greatly increase the number of online spectators from the Middle Kingdom that is why we are waiting for stunning records next year.
