DreamLeague Season 21 became the most popular tournament in the series in 2023

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On September 24, the DreamLeague Season 21 ended, in which 12 Dota teams from all over the world took part. The event attracted more than 388K Peak Viewers: this is the best result in the series this year.

DreamLeague Season 21 was the last major tournament before The International 2023, so many teams took it as a training session ahead of the world championship. The format of the 21st season was shorter than the previous ones: instead of two group stages and a short playoff bracket, the participants played only one group stage with a large double-elimination bracket.

Among the unexpected results, we can note the elimination of Team Liquid and Talon Esports after the group stage. Insania's roster scored the most DPC points this year, so this result for Team Liquid is rather an unfortunate exception. As for Talon Esports, this team is deservedly called the strongest representative of Southeast Asia, but this tournament clearly did not work out for them.

Talking about the leaders, Group A was led by Team Shopify Rebellion, and in Group B Team Spirit became the leader. By the way, it was these teams that met in the grand final of the tournament: Team Spirit confidently won with a score of 3:0 and earned $300,000.

DreamLeague Season 21 Viewership Statistics

DreamLeague Season 21 matches totaled 11.1M Hours Watched, with 158.7K Average Viewers and 388.5K Peak Viewers. The most popular match of the tournament was the grand final. Note that four of the five most popular matches involved Shopify Rebellion. The American team also became the leader in total watch time (since played an additional match in the lower bracket).

DreamLeague Season 21 games were covered on 125 unique channels across five platforms, including Dota TV. In addition to official broadcasts, the tournament also had community casting from popular streamers: Gorgc, just_ns, Dreadztv, etc. Nix, the most popular community caster of the current season, streamed the tournament for only 5.5 hours, just covering the final series.

Comparison of DreamLeague Season 21 with previous seasons

DreamLeague Season 21 was also significantly ahead of previous seasons in terms of viewership. The peak viewership during broadcasts increased from 276.4K to 388.5K viewers, and the average online increased from 128.2K to 158.7K. In percentage terms, the number of viewers increased by 40% and 23%, respectively. In terms of total watch time, DreamLeague S21 was inferior to previous seasons, but only because of a different format and less airtime.

DreamLeague Season 21 comparison with previous seasons

DreamLeague Season 21 became the #5 Dota tournament of 2023 by Peak Viewers. According to this indicator, the event lost only to three majors (in Lima, Berlin, and Bali), as well as the Riyadh Masters 2023 that took place in July. 

Most popular Dota 2 tournaments on 2023 (excl. TI 2023)

Let us remind you that from October 12 to 29, Seattle will host The International 2023, the final tournament of the current season and the main tournament of the year. You can check the audience statistics for this event on the report page.