The International 2023 Russian viewership have increased over a year, English has dropped noticeably

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The International 2023 concluded in Seattle on the night of November 30. Dota 2's main tournament of the year did not surpass the numbers of last year's world championship, but it did set several language records.

The most popular language for The International 2023 broadcasts was Russian, with 815.7K Peak Viewers, which is 16.6% higher than the previous world championship. This is currently the best result for a language in 2023 and the second-best result in the history of Dota 2 tournaments (only surpassed by The International 10).

Compared to The International 2022, the hours of watch time of Russian-language broadcasts increased by 27% and reached 29.3 million. Two factors influenced this growth: firstly, four teams from Eastern Europe were playing at the event, as well as many Russian-speaking players in other teams. Secondly, one of them — Team Spirit — reached the finals and became TI champion for the second time in the history of an organization.

English-language broadcasts accounted for 35.6% of the total Hours Watched number of the entire tournament (compared to 45.4% at The International 2022). As for the Peak Viewers number, it also significantly decreased. This year, English-language broadcasts of the world championship attracted 456.3K PV, which is 38% fewer compared to the previous tournament.

  English vs. Russian viewership of TI 2022-2023 

Among the non-major languages, Spanish showed the largest growth. Compared to TI 2022, watch time increased by 38.5%. This was mainly thanks to the dota2ti_es broadcasts, as well as community casters such as Kingteka, jerichodota, and benjaz. However, the Peak Viewers number was slightly lower compared to last year. Spanish-speaking Dota 2 fans were the most attracted to The Lima Major 2023, Valve's first major event in Latin America.

The Portuguese and Ukrainian languages also showed good dynamics, with their watch time increasing by 80% and 87.5%, respectively, compared to the previous tournament. The biggest contribution to this result was made by community casters skipnho and ns_art, as well as Maincast studio channels. Compared to The International 2022, the Portuguese language almost doubled its PV performance. However, the Peak Viewers number of the Ukrainian language, on the contrary, decreased by almost 25%.

The increase in Hours Watched for these languages was because of the growth of the Average Viewers number on the broadcasts. For some languages (for example, Portuguese), this metric almost doubled. All of this indicates a sustained interest from viewers in local studios and community casters.

In 2023, the professional Dota 2 scene underwent significant changes. New teams and dominant regions emerged, along with new broadcasting studios and super tournaments with million-dollar prize pools. For the first time in many years, The International lost its status as the most financially rewarding tournament of the season, yielding the lead to Riyadh Masters. It is likely that even more radical changes await us in the future, but for now, we will gradually evaluate the outcomes of the departing season. For a more detailed analysis, read our upcoming articles on Dota 2.