DreamHack Melbourne 2022: Tournaments Results and Viewership

DreamHack Melbourne 2022 was held in Melbourne, Australia, from September 2 to 4. There were a lot of activities for visitors: open gaming zones, esports tournaments in several disciplines, stores with souvenirs and computer devices for gamers, a cosplay show, popular DJ performances and a lot more. Moreover, the organizers held special lectures for students about job search options in the esports and gaming industry.

You can feel and see the atmosphere of the festival better in the event photo gallery, while the Esports Charts team will tell you about the results of the tournaments in this article.

ESL Challenger at DreamHack Melbourne 2022

ESL Challenger at CS:GO DreamHack Melbourne 2022 is a kind of qualifying tournament for ESL Pro League Conference Season 17, from which teams can qualify for the prestigious ESL Pro League Season 17 tournament. Eight teams from Europe, Russia, Brazil, Australia and China competed in the ESL Challenger tournament in Melbourne. Among them were OG, Entropiq, paiN Gaming, Imperial Esports, Evil Geniuses and others.

The ESL Challenger participants were divided into two groups of four teams, where they played for two playoff quotas. Entropiq and Wings Up Gaming made it out of Group A, while paiN Gaming and Imperial Esports made it out of Group B. Interestingly, the Brazilian teams encountered in the Grand final of the tournament — paiN Gaming won 2-1, earned $50K and a slot in ESL Pro League Conference Season 17.The other finalist earned $20K.

ESL Challenger Melbourne amassed 1.2 million Hours Watched. The tournament's Average Viewers number was 37.7K people, and the Peak Viewers number was 113K people. The most popular game is the first match of the playoffs between Imperial and Entropiq. The Grand final between the Brazilian teams drew only 88.8K Peak Viewers, the second highest result in the tournament. This is an interesting detail, as usually the final matches attract more viewers than the rest of the games.

The match between the Brazilian teams in the final of the CS:GO tournament could have attracted hundreds of thousands of people, especially since the event was hosted by Gaules, the most popular streamer in Brazil. However, this time the tournament did not draw crowds of viewers because of the time zones. After the tournament ended, many Brazilian viewers complained about the inconvenient schedule — many didn't manage to watch the game after midnight.

Overall, comparing ESL Challenger in Melbourne to the similar tournament in Valencia in early July, both tournaments showed roughly similar metrics. The Spanish tournament had slightly more Hours Watched (1.4 million) and Average Viewers (39.3K). The Valencia event, on the other hand, lagged far behind by Peak Viewers number (91.5K).

LCO Split 2 2022

The final two matches of LCO Split 2 2022, the regional League of Legends league for Australia and Oceania, were also run as part of DreamHack Melbourne 2022. Pentanet.GG defeated ORDER in the lower bracket final on September 2, and lost to Chiefs Esports Club in the Grand final on September 4. Interestingly, in this series, Chiefs Esports Club lost its first map in the entire split — the team had a 21-0 statistic in the group stage. And now Chiefs Esports Club will play in the Play-In stage of the 2022 World Championship.

LCO matches accumulated just 685K Hours Watched, drew 5.2K Average and 17.8K Peak Viewers respectively over the summer season. All three matches of the split drew more than 10K Peak Viewers. The Grand final became the most popular game. The Pentanet.GG matches became the most watched, totaling over 244K Hours Watched. It should be noted that Pentanet.GG played more series than any other team in the league.

LCO is far from being the most popular regional League of Legends league, but at least it has been showing some growth lately. For example, in the spring of 2021 the Average Viewers number was 2.2K people, while in the summer of 2022 this number doubled. The Peak Viewers number also increased from last year.

Halo Championship Series 2022: Oceania Regional Championship

Halo Championship Series 2022: Oceania Regional Championship was also held in Melbourne from 2 to 4 September. The tournament featured 24 teams from Australia. Some of them got direct invites, while others had to pass open qualifiers, which were held on the eve of the main tournament.

In the Grand final, Chiefs Esports Club defeated Mindfreak 4-2. The winner got $20K and a quota to the Halo Championship Series 2022: Orlando Main Event, including paid transportation to the event for the entire team.

Halo Championship Series 2022 games in Melbourne racked up 196.7K Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number at the broadcasts was 6.6K people, and the Peak Viewers number was just over 10K people. The most popular match is the Grand final of the tournament.

Compared with previous events, the Australian HCS stage turned out to have the worst results in the tournament series. It is twice behind Spain and Mexico in every key metric, while Halo Championship Series 2022: North America Super reached an even higher audience — three times the number of Hours Watched (719K) and seven times the Peak Viewers number (77K).

Twitch Rivals Knockout City Showdown

Twitch Rivals Knockout City Showdown also took place as part of DreamHack Melbourne 2022. Robcdee, pestily and other famous streamers took part in it. Participants competed in a team game Knockout City, very similar to the futuristic version of dodgeball.

The official Twitch Rivals Knockout City Showdown broadcast lasted only four hours, and in that time it accumulated 66.2K Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number was 14.4K, and the Peak Viewers number was over 17.8K people. Overall, the new Twitch Rivals didn't turn out to have the top audience reach, but it outpaced LCO and HGC by some metrics. The results would have been even better if larger streamers had participated in the event, or if a more well-known game had been chosen for the competition.

Fighting Games

DreamHack Melbourne 2022 also featured several fighting game tournaments, which drew a very small audience. The participants competed in Super Smash Bros., Tekken, DNF Duel, Street Fighter V, and Guilty Gear Strive. The broadcasts lasted from four to eight hours and drew several dozen viewers.

Detailed statistics on all major esports tournaments are available with the Esports Charts PRO subscription, the benefits of which can be checked here.