Call of Duty League 2024: Stage 2 Major continues game’s sedate run after YouTube return
The Call of Duty League 2024: Stage 2 Major, held at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, concluded on March 25. Compared to the first Major, there were barely any changes in the statistics, continuing the trend of higher viewership numbers in 2024 than the previous full year when broadcasts were YouTube exclusive (2022). However, they are projecting lower figures compared to 2023, when live streams were additionally available on Twitch, with co-casting playing a massive role in reaching a wider audience base.
This $375,000 Call of Duty competition saw Atlanta FaZe beat OpTic Texas 4:1 in the Grand Final. The former, perhaps the most consistent side in the discipline over the past few seasons, pocketed $150,000 and 100 CDL Points while the most popular side in the league took home $90,000 and 75 CDL Points.
The CDL 2024: Stage 2 Major recorded 244.4K Peak Viewers during the summit clash between two of the most followed and successful sides in sports' history. It was their second meeting at this Call of Duty competition, with their Winners Final earlier in the day also going Atlanta FaZe's way (a 3:1 win).
In fact, this game was third on this leaderboard, finishing as the last one to cross the 200K PV mark. The other match to reach this milestone was the Elimination Final between OpTic Texas and New York Subliners, which became richer by $60,000 and earned 60 CDL Points for its third-placed finish.
The CDL 2024: Stage 2 Major also registered 3.9M Hours Watched and 121.9K Average Viewers over 32 hours of airtime. That was in no small part to the most popular side in the division which continued to pull in viewers and back the hype with some scintillating performances.
Of course, the likes of Scump and ZooMaa Live continue to stream the action live after their moves to YouTube, and they are a major reason these events are doing as well as they are. They also continue to outperform the official channels, with the former ending as the most watched and most popular channel overall.
As mentioned, there was very little to separate the viewership numbers of this Call of Duty season's first two Majors. The watch time and peak viewership were split by just 1.1% and 0.39%, respectively, showing that the action may not necessarily be losing audiences, even if it isn't also pulling new viewers in.
Of course, many Twitch users who were unhappy with the move back to a YouTube-exclusive system continue to use the former to listen to the commentary, with video broadcasts not allowed. This might suggest a continued pushback from fans, but if the quality of games continues to be high, there is no doubt that these figures will only head up over the remaining three Majors.
It also has to be noted that the first two Majors of 2024 have entered the all-time top five when it comes to the popularity of these events. Considering the names above were live-streamed on multiple streaming services, this is quite the achievement, pointing to a steady rise in the interest among audiences to watch matches at this year's tournaments.
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