Analysis of the first DPC season

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The last Dota 2 tournament season was mostly experimental. Valve introduced Dota Pro Circuit system thus reformed Dota 2 esports globally. That is why it is quite interesting to work with statistics to discover how much Dota 2 changed for the last year and whether the new system turned out to be effective.

The peak amount of viewers of top-level tournaments fell down significantly. The quantity didn’t turn into quality. There is a huge problem with oversaturation of Dota 2 professional scene. Both players and viewers are tired of never-ending qualifications and championships with the same teams and players. The competition became a routine. Statistics prove all of that. 

Nevertheless, there is also some positive news. Last Dota 2 tournaments had more viewers than the first Majors and Minors of DPC system in 2017. Moreover — the Chinese tournaments Dota 2 Asia Championship 2018 and MDL Changsha Major gathered more spectators than The International 2017. It happened since there were a lot of Chinese teams and they demonstrated good performances.

However, the situation is not so good if we do not count the Chinese audience. The most popular tournament of 2018 was China Dota 2 Supermajor, it totaled 450.573 viewers at the peak. It is two times less compared to The Kiev Major in 2017 which gathered 842.360 spectators at the peak. On the other hand, the second Major tournament of the last season — The Boston Major totaled 469.870 viewers at the peak, which is not much more compared to China Dota 2 Supermajor. 

The average amount of viewers is also quite curious and indicative. In short, it fell significantly. The average amount of spectators of China Dota 2 Supermajor without the Chinese is 137.720 people, while The Boston Major had 210.930 viewers and The Kiev Major — 316.260 spectators. The difference is huge. The situation was saved by EPICENTER XL which gathered 179.950 viewers on average which is 38.300 more compared to the previous EPICENTER 2017. 

Open qualifications for The International 2018 gathered much fewer teams compare to the previous year. It proves that even amateur players lost their interest to Dota 2 esports. 

Summarizing everything we can say that Dota 2 loses its audience. If The International 2018 will gather fewer viewers compared to last year tournament it can become the final cherry on the cake. The situation can be saved by the Chinese fans as the western audience is not so devoted to Dota 2 as before. Valve has already made some changes for the next year’s DPC system, there will be only 5 Majors and 5 Minors. Perhaps it will change something. Esports Charts team will watch closely. 

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