2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Summer continues disciplines’ viewership growth post Twitch return
The 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Summer, the second event in the series this year, was held online from August 19 to August 21. After a weekend of intense action, gyu emerged victorious, helping continue the game's remarkable recent rise from the ashes thanks to its return to broadcasting on Twitch.
Sixteen top players from the April, May, and June Ladder rankings dueled in the 4-deck, best-of-5 Conquest with a ban format. At the end of the two days, gyu defeated PocketTrain 3:2 in the Grand Finals to secure $10K out of the $50K prize purse and book a spot in the Hearthstone World Championship 2023.
The 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Summer hit 32K Peak Viewers during the beginning of Day 2 when the top eight began doing battle. The format of this Hearthstone competition saw competitors bring four decks into the fray, and those with the best score in the best-of-five matches advanced to the next stage.
Day 1 saw all 16 players compete across four groups, with the top two from each pool moving to the finals on Day 2. The top eight then fought it out in a single-elimination bracket, with the semifinals seeing Meati losing to PocketTrain 2:3 in an all-UK affair and gyu beating DreadEye (United States) 3:0.
The tournament also did 357K Hours Watched and 20K Average Viewers over an airtime of 18 hours. What helped it attract a lot more eyeballs than usual was the availability of Twitch drops, with watchers having the chance to earn up to two Titans packs while watching the action during the weekend.
Despite these drops being available throughout the weekend, all users had to do was watch for four hours to claim their rewards. Perhaps that is why the peak concurrent viewership numbers towards the end of the event dipped a bit, with the summit clash doing only 17K PV, as they would have claimed the two Titans Hearthstone packs by then, reducing the incentive to watch the most important game.
Speaking of Twitch, when looking at the most successful streamers from the 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Summer, French organization solaryhs was the most popular and watched individual channel. Greek Hearthstone content creator FenoHS was second on the former list as he was part of the myriad online personalities who co-cast the event.
The competition was broadcast on the official YouTube and Twitch channels of Hearthstone, with community casting playing a major role as well. This is all thanks to the organizers inviting content creators to come forward and apply for co-streaming rights for this and future Hearthstone esports events.
When comparing the events in the Hearthstone Masters Tour, the 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Summer takes up the fourth position on the most popular tournaments list, led by the Masters Tour 2019 Seoul. It also made the top ten of the most-watched events table, topped by the Masters Tour 2019 Las Vegas.
Most importantly, with its return to the purple platform in 2023, Hearthstone has seen a steady rise in viewership numbers, with the previous event, the 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Spring, doing similar watch numbers. However, it was the summer competition that ended as the more popular.
Such has been the increase in numbers this year that the two Masters Tour tournaments have had more peak viewers (by 27.4% and 51%) than the Hearthstone World Championship 2022! Across the six events in the series held in 2022, the Masters Tour 2022 Murder at Castle Nathria was the most successful across the two metrics (301K HW and 14K PV), which has easily been surpassed by the two editions held in 2023.
This upward curve has been thanks to the undoubted influence of Twitch and its legions of users and streamers, especially those who follow the discipline and are fans themselves. Highly-followed internet stars who concentrate on the discipline on the Amazon-owned site got a chance to broadcast the event and discuss different playstyles and strategies with their communities.
Of course, going live on Twitch also meant more channels live-streaming the action, so that was a big advantage for the 2023 leg of the Hearthstone Masters Tour. All this combined to help it continue its recovery this year.
More about the Hearthstone esports in 2023 and the Masters Tour
This is the tenth year of competitive Hearthstone, meaning there were changes made from previous years to give it the best chance of success. The 2023 season is smaller than usual, but there are seven events — three Masters Tour Seasonal Championships leading into the 2023 World Championship and three standalone Battlegrounds: Lobby Legends tournaments, which will all be broadcast on YouTube and Twitch.
Each Masters Tour features 16 top Ladder players based on Competitive Points earned through monthly standings. The casters included Dragonrider, Lorinda, Raven, Sottle, and TJ. At the 2023 Hearthstone Masters Tour Spring, it was Russia's levik who beat Ukraine Wolder 3:2 in the Grand Finals to seal his place at the Wordls.
The Battlegrounds: Lobby Legends will have a $50K prize pool, with Standard players competing for eight spots at the 2023 World Championship, which has a prize pool of $500K. Seasonal Championships winners will get automatic invites, and they will be joined by the top Points earners for January to November. The top earner in each region and the top two Points earners, regardless of the region, will also get invites.
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