The Bali Major 2023 Viewership Statistics

On July 9, The Bali Major 2023, a Dota 2 tournament, ended in Indonesia, marking the final Major of the current Dota Pro Circuit season. It gathered significantly fewer viewers compared to previous Valve-sponsored tournaments. In particular, the Average Viewers on broadcasts decreased significantly, although the Peak Viewers number remained on the same level. Esports Charts provides an overview of the tournament's overall results.

The Bali Major 2023 Tournament Results

The Bali Major 2023 followed the same format as the previous Majors in Lima and Berlin. The first part of the participants was eliminated in the group stage, and the finalists were determined through the double-elimination bracket. In the decisive match, Gaimin Gladiators defeated Team Liquid with a score of 3:1.

Interestingly, Gaimin Gladiators and Team Liquid also faced each other in the finals of ESL One Berlin Major 2023 and The Lima Major 2023, with Gaimin Gladiators coming out on top both times. This means that Gaimin Gladiators has won all three Majors in 2023, and considering the two DreamLeague seasons (19th and 20th), the team Seleri has won five major international tournaments in a row. Between March and July, the team earned over $1.2 million. It is possible that this amount will significantly increase after the Riyadh Masters 2023.

Speaking of the overall results of the tournament, teams from Western Europe once again demonstrated that they are significantly stronger than teams from other regions. They claimed all the Top 4 spots at this Major. Representatives from China slightly improved their performance, with two teams from this region making it into the Top 8. Among the underachievers, Southeast Asia and North America can be highlighted, as teams from these regions showed a very weak performance in Bali.

The Bali Major 2023 Viewership Results

The matches of The Bali Major 2023 accumulated slightly over 22 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number per broadcast was 175.8K people, with the Peak Viewers number reaching 475.4K people.

The most popular match of the Major was the Grand Final between Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators. Interestingly, this match was the only one in the tournament to surpass the 400K viewer mark. Team Liquid emerged as the leader by total Hours Watched, with broadcasts of its matches amassing 5.6 million hours. It's worth noting that this is a logical result, as Team Liquid reached the final through the lower bracket and played more series in the Major than any other team. As for leadership in terms of Average Viewers per match, representatives from both Western and Eastern Europe made it into the Top 5.

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Most popular teams of The Bali Major 2023 in terms of Average Viewers per match

In total, The Bali Major 2023 matches were broadcast on 182 different channels on Twitch, YouTube, and other platforms. There were broadcasts both on official channels and on streams by independent community casters. A more detailed analysis by languages and channels will be provided in the next article.

Comparison with Previous Majors

Comparison of all Majors in the Dota Pro Circuit 2023 season

The Bali Major 2023 had the lowest audience reach among all the Majors in 2023. While the Peak Viewers number saw a slight decline, the Average Viewers number gap was significant — around 25% compared to ESL One Berlin Major 2023 (the difference with The Lima Major 2023 was even greater). The drop in Average Viewers resulted in a decrease in Hours Watched, with The Bali Major 2023 being 22% weaker than the Berlin tournament and 32% weaker than the Lima tournament.

The Bali Major 2023 faced numerous issues that negatively impacted the viewership. The main concern was the unfavorable time zone. Viewers from Western Europe essentially missed most of the matches as they started very early.

Another reason is the sheer oversaturation of tournaments. Essentially, The Bali Major 2023 became the fifth major international tournament in the last four months (not counting DPC seasons). Viewers simply became fatigued from the high volume of matches, which often became repetitive due to the established meta. On the other hand, The Bali Major 2023, with a prize pool of $500K, took place just a few days before the start of Riyadh Masters 2023, where participants would compete for $15 million. So, The Bali Major 2023 was only of interest to those teams (and their fans) who were fighting for spots in The International 2023. All the favorites had already secured their positions.

The third factor contributing to the issues of The Bali Major 2023 was poor on-site production. Dota 2 fans actively discuss on Reddit and social media that the broadcasts of ESL One Berlin Major 2023 and DreamLeague Season 20 (both organized by ESL) were of higher quality compared to IO Esports and Epulze at The Bali Major. There were other factors as well, but these can be considered the main ones.

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In the second half of August, six regional qualifiers will take place to determine the final participants of The International 2023. The World Championship itself will be held from October 12 to 29 in Seattle at the Climate Pledge Arena. It is worth noting that this year Valve decided not to release the traditional Battle Pass prior to the main tournament of the season.