CDL 2023 regular season watch time grows almost 200% compared to last year
The Call of Duty League 2023, the absolute pinnacle of Call of Duty esports entertainment, saw the introduction of several new events and format changes. However, the bottom line remained the same: all 12 teams within the CDL battled for the top spot, ultimate glory, and massive prizing.
Having started with Twitch as the official broadcasting partner, the CDL 2023’s Regular Season added YouTube to its official streaming list, and the viewership results received a boost compared to the previous year. There was a lot to take away from OpTic scump’s gigantic numbers throughout the five majors, which confirmed his place as a leading gaming streamer today.
At the end of the five majors, the eight names with the most CDL points totals have sealed their berths at the Call of Duty League Championship 2023. Crucially, the performance of these sides helped the Regular Season register jumps in stats across the board when cumulatively looking at the five majors & their qualifiers in 2023.
The biggest gains were made in the Hours Watched and Average Viewers metrics, each jumping by more than 150%. Live streaming the matches on Twitch and YouTube combined seemed to work wonders for Activision, although the last major left much to be desired due to various reasons, not least the early exit of star team OpTic Texas.
It has to be noted that the entirety of the Call of Duty League 2022 was streamed on the red platform, with it mostly being dominated by English viewers. Of course, with the purple platform, there is the advantage of community streaming, which is always a positive and almost surefire way to reach a wider audience, which helped when it comes to the ongoing season.
The most successful event from 2023 was the Call of Duty League 2023: Stage 3 Major, while last year, it was the Call of Duty League 2022 Stage 1 Major. The former was 112.9% more popular than the first major of Season 3. Interestingly, with the new format this time, the airtime across the Regular Season this year also went up by 15.5%, contributing to better viewership numbers.
The former OpTic Texas pro, scump, reached new levels of success as a content creator for the organization, often matching the official Twitch channel of the league viewer for viewer. He easily beat the corresponding official YouTube channel of the series and with the 2023 Call of Duty League Playoffs to come, he still has a chance to overtake the CDL’s account on the Amazon-owned site and continue his climb toward becoming one of the foremost gaming content creators globally.
In fact, ex-COD e-athlete hit better numbers than both official channels of the league four times — three qualifier events and one major. He came close on a few other occasions, including the latest major, where the official Twitch channel had more watch hours thanks to the availability of viewership rewards.
The official Twitch channel providing audiences with rewards during the majors was the reason scump mostly performed better during the qualifier events, as providing loot always helps these handles bring in more viewers. Also, the official YouTube channel had almost identical viewership stats during all the events, apart from the first one, where it made its comeback, and it remains to be seen how the site does at the next tournament.
A word of appreciation should also be reserved for FaZe Clan's Zoomaa, who also consistently showed up and reached quite a decent number of viewers across the Regular Season. He, too, was able to outperform the series’ official YouTube channel, although it needs to be remembered that the broadcasts only officially shifted to the Google-owned site midway through Call of Duty League 2023: Stage 4 Major Qualifiers.
There was much hype and expectations on OpTic Texas across the Regular Season, and despite some up-and-down performances, it was the most watched side. Having failed to clinch any of the five majors during this phase of the CDL 2023, the most popular Call of Duty side worldwide will look to win the Post Season championship and end its season on a high.
Atlanta FaZe, perhaps the most consistent team across the four seasons of the league, was second in this metric, having backed up its three straight finals appearances in the league championships with another strong run this time. It is the most successful side in terms of stages won as well, having won one in 2023 to add to the three it won in 2021.
As a result, the organization, co-owned by FaZe Clan, will begin as the number-one seed at the Call of Duty League Championship 2023. OpTic Texas will be the second seed, while New York Subliners, the only side to win multiple majors in Season 4, will be the third seed.
Looking at the chat activity on Twitch (the Scump and official CoD Twitch channel), there was more proof of the undying loyalty and support that OpTic Texas enjoys from its fanbase. It was the most discussed side across the CDL 2023’s Regular Season, beating out the second-best side by a humongous 1243%.
English continued to be the dominant language across the Regular Season this time, similar to the 2022 season. The Call of Duty League 2023: Stage 4 Major was the CoD competition with the most number of languages recorded, at seven, with the next best being five at the previous major.
The focus now shifts to the Call of Duty League Championship 2023, which runs from June 15 to June 18 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and carries a prize pool of $2.3M. Fans will hope that OpTic Texas can put an indifferent Regular Season behind it and clinch its first league championship. Meanwhile, the likes of Atlanta FaZe and New York Subliners will look to crown their consistent showings with a triumph for the ages at the biggest stage their sport has to offer.
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