How Dendi's popularity affected B8 Esports' audience in North America

Dendi is a worldwide famous esports player, whose popularity goes far beyond Dota 2 scene. His current team, B8 Esports, has not been successful in the Eastern European division of Dota Pro Circuit, and in the new season it moved to North America to try the luck there. Esports Charts takes a closer look at how the team's viewership changed and how Dendi's popularity has contributed to it.

Who is Dendi?

Dendi started playing computer games professionally back in the days of Dota Allstars, but his biggest achievement was becoming the Dots 2 champion of the inaugural The International in 2011 with Natus Vincere. He also reached finals in the next two world championships with the same team.

Despite not being quite successful on esports scene in recent years, Dendi is still quite popular with the fans as a streamer. He has won more than $800K in tournaments in his career and for some time has been the most successful e-athlete in Ukraine based on this criterion.

Dendi / Photo: thesportsrush.com

Dendi has a huge fan base, and not only among Russian-speaking Dota 2 fans, but also among foreigners. Even in the early days of his career, he began to develop his image in the media space, to promote social networks, to impress fans at tournaments, and so on. He is always happy to talk to fans and tries not to get into scandals. Dendi also streams a lot and regularly in English (which is quite atypical for a Russian-speaking gamer).

After leaving Natus Vincere, he created his own organization, B8 Esports, where he plays as a mid-laner and captain. Things were difficult for the Dendi' team from the very beginning: poor results in tournaments and huge losing streak led to constant reshuffles. Interestingly, despite this, B8 matches still gather tens of thousands of viewers.

Popularity of B8 in DPC Regions

B8 has twice dropped out of the Dota Pro Circuit regional league in Eastern Europe. Last time it played at DPC EEU 2021/22 Tour 1 Division II, but placed eighth and was eliminated from the league. In January 2023, the team announced a big reshuffle, bought a slot in DPC NA 2023, and moved to North America. The results improved slightly in NA, with the team placing sixth and retaining a spot in Division I.

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We have compared the number of viewers at the team's DPC games in Europe and North America to estimate the popularity of B8 in different regions.

During DPC EEU 2021/22 Tour 1 Division II, B8 broadcasts drew 34.1K Average Viewers — second only to CIS Rejects. Broadcasts of B8 matches on Twitch accumulated 631.5K Hours Watched. Based on this metric, the team was only the fifth of the eight competitors in Division II.

Since moving to North America, B8's metrics have plummeted, with a 39% drop in Hours Watched, but the team has still become the best in its division by the metric, surpassing even Shopify Rebellion (former squad of Evil Geniuses). At the same time, the AV number at games dropped by 47%.

The team was among the leaders in both regions by Average Viewers, which indicates consistent interest from viewers and fans. At the same time, the HW number may vary greatly between teams, as it directly depends on the duration of matches, so it is not as relevant in assessing the popularity of teams as the AV number on the broadcasts.

The example of B8 Esports clearly shows the difference in popularity of Dota 2 in both regions. In Eastern Europe, the game has far more fans and viewers than in North America, so even a not-so-successful local team can become one of the most popular when it moves overseas. Dendi's media presence played a role here as well.

After the region swap, B8's Hours Watched on Russian-speaking broadcasts decreased by 5.2 times, but increased by 2.6 times English-speaking ones. Interestingly, the same metric in Spanish increased almost six times, which is largely affected by the fact that Peruvian player MoOz joined B8.

How Many B8 Viewers Watch Dendi's Streams?

Dendi is the main star of B8, so we have decided to look at the overlap between the team's audience and Dendi's personal streams. In the fourth quarter of 2022, more than 325K Unique Authorized Twitch Viewers watched Dendi's broadcasts. That number was 149.7K in NA DPC. Using Streams Charts tools, we have found that over 26.7% of viewers at B8 games also watched Dendi broadcasts in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Dendi's personal brand has helped B8 move from one region to another with relative ease. Though it had a decrease in viewership, it wasn't because of the results, but because of the popularity of the game itself in North America. On the other hand, B8's results have improved: keeping its place in Division 1, the team has a chance to compete for DPC points and a ticket to Majors in the future.