DPC 2023 Tour 1 results: regions' popularity dynamics, top channels and broadcast languages

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The first stage of Dota Pro Circuit 2023 ended in early February, so it is time to take a look at the season's intermediate results. Esports Charts has calculated viewership numbers on the official broadcasts, named the most popular community caster and the most popular region in the discipline. Spoiler: South America is finally ahead of North America by every metric.

General Statistics

We have compared total DPC Tour 1 2021/2022 and DPC Tour 1 2023 statistics (including all regions) to estimate the general dynamics of Dota 2 regular season. We found that all the metrics have grown significantly over the past year. In particular, the total Hours Watched increased by as much as 27.4%.

We should remind you that the Hours Watched are calculated by multiplying the Average Viewers number by the Airtime. In the case of DPC Tour 1 2023, the Airtime increased by a relatively small amount — only 7.7%, but the Average Viewers number on broadcasts increased by as much as 18.4%. Thanks to this metric, the total Hours Watched number increased so much.

The most popular match of DPC Tour 1 2023 was the series between Team Spirit and BetBoom Team, which drew more than 249.8K Peak Viewers. In comparison, the match between OG and Team Secret drew the most viewers at DPC Tour 1 2022 with 246.5K Peak Viewers. 

Statistics by Region

Before the start of DPC Tour 1 2023, the Dota 2 professional scene saw many interesting transfers and decisions. This time, teams not only changed players or entire rosters but even regions. Some top teams left the discipline and new ones came in instead.

South America was the most onward region of DPC Tour 1 2023. Compared to last year, the Average Viewers number on broadcasts increased by 128.4%, and the Peak Viewers number grew by 142%. All this was possible because of increased competition within the region. First, well-known foreign clubs like Evil Geniuses and Alliance came to South America: they abandoned their previous lineups in the offseason and recruited rosters with promising local players. Second, the famous Brazilian club Keyd Stars returned to the professional scene after a six-year break. At the same time, the beastcoast squad showed very strong play throughout the tour. Summing up, the matches in South America are now more interesting to follow than ever, and the growing number of viewers proves it. 

Southeast Asia, as well, can boast an increase in viewership in the first tour of 2023. The Average Viewers number on broadcasts in the region increased by 56%, which resulted in as much as a 73% increase in Hours Watched. In the offseason, several new organizations joined Division I. For example, RSG disbanded the Dota 2 lineup and its slot went to another popular Filipino club, Blacklist International. A similar decision was made by the Korean organization T1: its slot was acquired by Bleed Esports from Singapore. Finally, Geek Slate (also known as Geek Fam) from Malaysia returned to Division 1 with a slot that was owned by the Mongolian team Lilgun. All of these reshuffles greatly shook up the regional scene and stimulated the interest of viewers. 

Eastern Europe retained its place among the most popular regions in Dota 2. Compared to last year, all metrics increased, especially the Hours Watched number (+40%) and Average Viewers number on broadcasts (+29.6%). This is the region that saw the most interesting offseason reshuffles. Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere, two of the most popular clubs in Eastern Europe, almost completely renewed their lineups. At the same time, BetBoom Team introduced their new star five players. Many fans were intrigued by the prospects of the Darkside super mix led by RAMZES666, as well as how Solo and Daxak would get along in HellRaisers. All of these reshuffles had different results, but the main goal was achieved — viewers had something to watch.

Western Europe remained the leader by the total Hours Watched and Average Viewers per broadcast in the first tour of DPC 2023. At the same time, the growth of metrics in the league was insignificant, and the Peak Viewers dropped 20% compared to last year. Europe started the season in its usual slow and even somewhat lazy style. Only Team Liquid was ready to play "seriously" and it did not leave their opponents even the slightest chance. On the other hand, the popular and titled clubs such as OG, Nigma Galaxy and Team Secret failed to start the season off on the right foot. Puppey's team even got kicked out of Division I for the first time in its history. We already saw something similar last season and then the bad start in the DPC league did not stop Team Secret from qualifying for The International 2022 and taking second place there. We'll see whether it happens again this year.

In China, the situation is about the same as in Western Europe — a slight increase in Hours Watched and Average Viewers was accompanied by a drop in Peak Viewers. The offseason in this region saw another "generational change". Several top players announced their retirement or career end. Among them are Ame, XinQ, Somnus, Chalice, Faith_bian, Ori, etc. Many newcomers came to replace them: they have not yet had time to prove themselves on the international stage, but the local viewers follow them with great interest. However, the first tour in China has already had a big scandal: Knights, which took third place at the end of the tour, were accused of using maphack. The tournament operator Perfect World has allegedly even collected evidence and forwarded them to Valve, but it is not clear how this story ends. Now Knights continue to prepare for The Lima Major 2023.

North America was the only region in DPC 2023 Tour 1 to drop by all metrics, including the Average Viewers number (which dropped by as much as 46.8%). In fact, North America has now officially become the most underperforming region in Dota 2, as South America surpassed it in every metric. There are many reasons for the poor result, from the low popularity of the game in the region to the withdrawal of popular entities, both clubs (like Evil Geniuses) and players (like the top player Quinn, who decided to continue his career in Europe). At this point, there are no objective signs that things will change for the better in North America anytime soon.

Popular Languages and Channels

Russian remains the most popular Dota 2 language — the Hours Watched number on Russian-language broadcasts during DPC 2023 Tour 1 increased by 29.5% in comparison with the first tour of last year. English (+7.6%) and Spanish (+91.8%) are also in the Top 3 by this metric.

The increase in Spanish is directly related to the increase in the number of viewers in South America. Many players from Peru play in this region, so the league has a large Spanish-speaking fan base. The situation is similar with Tagalog, which saw a +130% increase in the last year and climbed to fourth place among all languages by Hours Watched. This growth follows the reshuffle in Southeast Asia and the emergence of the Filipino club Blacklist International, which has a huge fan base in the region because of the team's success in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Apparently, some of these fans decided to cheer for the club in Dota 2 as well. 

One of the leaders by the Hours Watched increase is Ukrainian. Compared with January 2022, it increased by almost 13,000% (!). The main driver there was the Russian military invasion of Ukraine — before the war, the Russian and Ukrainian studios almost always covered tournaments in Russian. After the invasion, many Ukrainian commentators began broadcasting in their native language. 

Pgl_dota2, which streamed Western European matches, became the most-watched channel of DPC 2023 Tour 1. It got 4.4 million Hours Watched in the first tour. Interestingly, it is the only English-language channel in the Top 5: the remaining positions are taken by Russian-language channels.

The channel of Russian streamer Nix became the most popular channel by Peak Viewers; it was the only one that reached 100K PV during the tour. Other channels did not reach the mark over 75K PV. It should also be noted that Nix was the only community caster to become the leader in a certain league (in Eastern Europe). But in other regions, only the channels of the tournament operators were among the leaders.

We should also mention ESB_Dota2, the only YouTube channel which reached the Top by Peak Viewers (fifth place with 28K viewers). This audience was reached thanks to the broadcasts of South American matches in Spanish. Interestingly, in the first tour of 2022, the Spanish broadcasts were also in the Top 5, but they were hosted by 4DEsports.

Community casting plays a large role in the coverage of regional Dota 2 leagues. If we consider the first divisions in all DPC 2023 Tour 1 regions, community casting accounts for over 36% of the total Hours Watched.

The largest contribution of community casting is in Eastern Europe, which is the only region where third-party streamers draw more viewers than official broadcasts, with a ratio of about 40% to 60% in favor of casters from the community. 3rd party streamers draw the least attention in China, Southeast Asia and North America. The share in these regions is 10-18%.

Popular Teams and Matches

Western and Eastern European teams were the most popular DPC 2023 Tour 1 teams. For example, OG and Team Liquid topped the list by Hours Watched and Average Viewers on the broadcasts, respectively. But Team Spirit and BetBoom Team surpassed everyone by Peak Viewers. Interestingly, last year the leaders were more clear — OG took first place by all metrics then, and Team Secret took second place.

Viewers of each broadcast language had their own favorite team. For example, the Russian-language broadcasts attracted the most viewers at BetBoom's matches, and the English-speaking viewers mostly watched OG's games. Spanish-speaking viewers most actively followed the Evil Geniuses's games, and the peaks of viewership on the Tagalog broadcasts were at the games of Blacklist International. OG, BI, and EG matches, as well as the Chinese team PSG.LGD, were the most popular in their respective regions. Only North America and Eastern Europe had a relative "diversity" of teams in the Top 3 matches.

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DPC 2023 Tour 1 Division I winners and runners-up are set to play in The Lima Major 2023, scheduled for February 22 to March 5 in Peru. There, the top teams from six regions will compete for $500K and DPC ranking points.