HCS 2023: Arlington Major experiences the lowest peak viewership amid early OpTic elimination

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The Halo Championship Series 2023 wrapped up its second major of the year earlier this month. The Arlington Major is one of three Major events planned by the HCS and was hosted by OpTic Gaming, part of their prize for winning the Halo World Championship last year. The event saw 16 teams fighting for a spot in the playoffs, four of which came from the almost 100-team open qualifier. But only 12 teams could progress to the Championship Bracket.

Although OpTic Gaming was the host and slight favourite for the event, the ultimate victory went to FaZe Clan, who triumphed over Spacestation Gaming in the Grand Finals. This marks not only FaZe Clan’s first Major trophy in HCS but also OpTic Gaming’s first defeat at a Major event in over a year. The last time OpTic Gaming were defeated at a Major was at the HCS 2022 Kansas City Major in late April last year. 

HCS 2023: Arlington Major viewership statistics

Top matches & general stats of HCS 2023: Arlington M   

The Arlington Major amassed 1.2M Hours Watched throughout its weekend run, making it one of the most-watched Halo tournaments ever. An Average Viewers of 45K is not unexpected for the event, the metrics for other HCS Major events are relatively similar. 

However, where the HCS Arlington Major fell short was Peak Viewers. The Grand Finals of the event on Day 3 saw 69K fans concurrently watch the event, but Day 2 had a Peak Viewers figure of 64K and matches that day received 49K Average Viewers. While the final day of the event did reach an increased 52K Average Viewers per match, normally one expects a notably larger uptick in viewership for the final day. The viewership dynamics of the majors will be compared later in this piece.

Compare this to the first Major of the year, the Year 2 Kickoff Major Charlotte. At the Year 2 Kickoff event viewership reached its peak with 46K Peak Viewers for Day 2 of the event. However, the FaZe Clan and OpTic Gaming Grand Finals on the next day drew in 142K Peak Viewers. Viewership remained high on the final day with the Grand Finals staying above 100K concurrent viewers throughout the match and excluding the Grand Finals the final day reached 111K Peak Viewers. 

HCS 2023: Arlington's Major most popular teams

The Arlington Major 2023 had comparable Hours Watched to the HCS Major Orlando 2022 and despite the Arlington Major having the edge when it comes to Average Viewers overall, the Peak Viewers figure still lets it down. Could this be due to who survived until the final day of the event?

Looking at the most popular teams of the event, OpTic Gaming came out on top, even though they didn’t make it to the final day of the event. OpTic Gaming is one of the most popular teams in the HCS, according to Escharts’ own data on their viewership, and their disappearance on Day 2 of the event may have affected the viewership. With comparatively less popular teams making up the Day 3 of the event, viewers may have felt discouraged to tune into the final day of an OpTic-less event, which is hosted by OpTic Gaming.

OpTic Gaming were alongside three other NA teams the most popular teams of the event, but one French team stood among them: Quadrant. Quadrant is a gaming and content organisation and their YouTube channel has over 600K subscribers. Quadrant’s content focuses heavily on motorsport-related content, which should be no surprise as their founder is current McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris.

Halo was Quadrant’s first step into esports, signing the team in late 2021, before the restructuring of the HCS as it moved over to Halo Infinite. Since then Quadrant has also expanded into Rocket League, where they received 135K Peak Viewers for their team. The HCS Quadrant squad received 80K Peak Viewers at the inaugural event of Halo Infinite’s Halo Championship Series: HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021.

HCS Arlington Major 2023: Channels statistics

Although Peak Viewers were on a downturn compared to the Year 2 Kickoff Major, Hours Watched did increase slightly. Community casters were on a roll at the Year 2 Kickoff, achieving higher Peak Viewers than the main Halo stream. 

However, coming into the Arlington Major we can see an interesting change in the statistics. Although community casters did not reach the same Peak Viewers as earlier in the year, they amassed much more Hours Watched and are even starting to compete with the main Halo channel. A mix of platforms is also becoming apparently more popular, compared to previous majors for Halo where Twitch was by far the dominant platform. 

Comparison of HCS Majors' viewership metrics since 2021

Comparison of HCS Major Events by Hours Watched & Peak Viewers

Directly comparing the Arlington Major 2023 to its peers, we can see a lack of Day 3 viewership. Despite having more overall Hours Watched than the Year 2 Kickoff Major, Peak Viewers does not come close and this affects the Average Viewers figure too.  

HCS Major events follow a three-day weekend schedule. Opening games are played on Friday and come Sunday is when the Grand Finals and other closing matches are played. Usually, we report an uptick in viewership for Day 3 and this is when the Peak Viewers figure will be reached. 

For example, the Year 2 Kickoff Major earlier this year reached a Peak Viewers of 142K during the Grand Finals. In comparison to the Day 2 Peak Viewers at the same event, this marks a 210% increase. The HCS Major Kansas City 2022 event also showed a 67% increase in Peak Viewers from Day 2 to 3. Analysing the Arlington Major metrics in the same way, only a 5% increase is to be reported. This may circle back to OpTic Gaming’s early exit from the event, as OpTic Gaming matches are the source of the Arlington Major’s Day 2 Peak Viewers. 

Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture, the HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021 remains by far the most successful HCS Major event over the last two years. With 4.2M Hours Watched and a Peak Viewers of 267K, what made this event special? Well, the Raleigh Kickoff Major was the first event of the series, when HCS made the jump over to Halo Infinite, the game that was released in November 2021, just a month before the Raleigh Kickoff Major took place. The event was well planned and timed out to utilise the hype wave of the game’s release to its advantage, and the Peak Viewers figure of 267K has never been matched since. 

Regardless, the Halo Championship Series 2023: Arlington Major is behind us. Coming up in September of this year is the HCS 2023: Fort Worth Major. The event features another $250,000 USD prize pool and will be the last Major event of the year. Teams who finish within the top eight will qualify directly for the Halo World Championship 2023, which will feature a $1,000,000 USD prize pool. Expect teams to bring their best and play some amazing matches, all competing for a chance on the world stage.