How popular was DreamLeague Season 19 among events with $1M+ prize pool?
The DreamLeague Season 19, an online Dota 2 tournament, ended on April 23. Sixteen teams from around the world competed for a million dollars, and the winner also won a slot in the Riyadh Masters 2023, a $15 million tournament to be held in July. The event was not as successful as Valve's majors in terms of viewership but showed comparable results to other tournaments outside of the Dota Pro Circuit.
The main feature of the DreamLeague Season 19 was that the Group Stage and the playoffs were played on radically different patches. On the night of April 21, the day before the playoffs started, Valve released patch 7.33. The update not only increased the map by 40% but also made many global balance changes to gameplay, heroes, and artifacts.
Average Viewers number at broadcast during the DreamLeague Season 19 Group Stage was about 109K, and during the playoffs, when the patch was already released, this number increased to 155K. In other words, the increase was a little over 41%. In comparison, at tournaments with similar status last year, the growth of the audience between stages was much less. For example, it was 30.6% at the Riyadh Masters 2022 and about 17% at ESL One Malaysia 2022.
DreamLeague Season 19 Viewership Totals
DreamLeague Season 19 matches accumulated 18.2 million Hours Watched and drew 114.8K AV. The Peak Viewers number reached the mark of 268K on April 11, when several Group Stage matches were played at the same time, including OG vs. Team Spirit and Talon Esports vs. Tundra Esports: they reached 94.5K and 102.5K Peak Viewers, respectively. The Grand Final between Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators became the most popular game of the tournament, attracting 247.6K PV.
We should note that there is a wide variety of matchups in the Top 5 most popular matches. Interestingly, there are no large differences in the number of Peak Viewers between the matches, the interest of the audience in the event grew gradually and didn't depend much on the success of the individual teams.
Team Liquid became the most popular team of the DreamLeague Season 19, drawing almost 97.2K Average Viewers. The Top 5 most popular teams includes representatives of Western and Eastern Europe, as well as South America.
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Most popular DreamLeague Season 19 teams
DreamLeague Season 19 matches were covered in more than 20 languages, with English, Russian and Spanish comprising the Top 3. As for the distribution by platform, Twitch proved to be the undisputed leader, with YouTube coming in second place. DreamLeague Season 19 matches were broadcast by a total of 161 channels, including both the official and channels of community casters. You can find more details on the tournament page with PRO subscription.
Comparison with other DreamLeague tournaments
Most popular DreamLeague tournaments by Peak Viewers
DreamLeague often has different formats and statuses. For example, 14th to the 18th season were regional Dota Pro Circuit leagues for Western Europe, and teams competed for quota places for majors and DPC points, and there were not even finals or playoff stages at these events.
The DreamLeague Season 13 remains the most popular event of the series by all metrics. But it should be mentioned that the tournament was a Major, which increased its status and interest among the audience. If we don't take into account the Majors, the DreamLeague Season 19 has become the most popular independent tournament from the organizers. Previously, the leader was the DreamLeague Season 7, which took place in 2017.
The DreamLeague 19 and the most popular non-DPC tournaments in 2022
In terms of audience reach, the DreamLeague Season 19 lags far behind Valve's Majors. For example, The Lima Major 2023, which took place in February, reached 1.8 times the number of Peak Viewers and 2.2 times the number of Average Viewers on the broadcasts. Compared to other standalone tournaments that were not part of the DPC in 2022, the DreamLeague Season 19 tournament is also behind ESL One Malaysia 2022 and Riyadh Masters 2022, but ahead of the Gamers Galaxy Invitational Series Dubai 2022.
Another feature of the DreamLeague Season 19 is that it was one of the few standalone Dota 2 tournaments with a prize pool of a million dollars (even at its Majors, Valve offers only $500K). At the same time, the increased prize pool has not helped the event significantly increase its audience — the DreamLeague Season 19 has taken only 98th place in terms of Peak Viewers among all the esports tournaments with a prize pool of a million dollars or more. And we haven't taken into account the Dota 2 Majors, which usually draw more viewers than standalone tournaments.
ESL One Berlin Major 2023, the second Dota Pro Circuit 2023 major season, takes place in Germany on April 26-May 7. Eighteen teams from six regions will compete for the $500K prize pool and ranking points for a direct invite to The International 2023. You can follow the tournament on our coverage page.
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