B8 Esports helps the American qualifier for The International 2023 set a record for Peak Viewers

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North America and China were the first to complete the regional qualifiers for The International 2023, the Dota 2 tournament. These aren't the most popular divisions on the professional scene among Western viewers, but even there, the matches drew a fairly large number of viewers. For example, the American qualifiers even set a record for Peak Viewers among all previous qualifiers in their region, all thanks to the participation of the Ukrainian team B8 Esports.

North American Qualifier Viewership Statistics

In the North American qualifiers, the teams consisted mainly of mixes with players from the USA, Canada, and some other countries. However, the most attention was drawn to the roster of B8 Esports, which consisted of four Ukrainians. B8 Esports, led by Dendi, managed to reach the final, but in the decisive match, the team was defeated by the players from NOUNS.

TI 2023 North America Viewership Statistics

The qualifiers in North America accumulated over 1.5 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number during the broadcasts reached 27.6K, while the Peak Viewers number reached a record of 122.9K individuals.

The most popular match was the final series between B8 Esports and NOUNS. It is worth noting that on the final day of the tournament, the number of viewers was two to three times higher compared with the previous days, largely thanks to a large number of viewers from Eastern Europe who joined the broadcast to support B8.

Most popular TI qualifiers in North America

The qualifiers for The International 2023 in North America attracted more Peak Viewers compared with the last year, with this number increasing by a whopping 51%. This can be attributed to the involvement of Russian-speaking community casters, who placed special emphasis on the North American qualifiers and the B8 Esports team in particular. However, the Average Viewers number and the total Hours Watched remained roughly the same as last year.

China Qualifier Viewership Statistics

Unlike North America, more strong teams competed in the qualifiers in China. Some of them even had a chance to play in the Majors and the Riyadh Masters 2023 tournament this season. The favorites of the qualifiers were Team Asters, Invictus Gaming, Azure Ray, and Xtreme Gaming. It was the latter two who faced each other in the decisive match for the spot, with Azure Ray securing a victory with a score of 3:1.

TI 2023 China Viewership Statistics

The Chinese qualifier matches amassed almost 1.3 million HW and drew 24.6K AV. The Peak Viewers number was recorded during the Grand Final between Azure Ray and Xtreme Gaming, reaching 73.2K people.

Compared with the previous year, all the metrics for the Chinese qualifiers have approximately halved. The Peak Viewers number decreased from 138.6K to 73.2K, while the Average Viewers number decreased from 52.4K to 24.6K. A similar situation can be observed with the total Hours Watched. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is the weak performance of Chinese teams throughout the DPC season. Additionally, at the beginning of the year, many Chinese players were accused of participating in match-fixing, which significantly impacted the viewers' interest in the discipline.

It is important to note that the statistics mentioned above do not take into account data from Chinese platforms, but rather focus on international services such as Twitch, YouTube, Trovo, and so on. However, Dota 2 remains quite popular in China, and local viewers mostly watch matches on domestic streaming platforms like Huya Live or DouYu. These platforms measure popularity using their own metric called the Heat Index, which comprises various factors including the duration of the stream and viewer activity in the chat. Statistics for these platforms were calculated separately.

TI 2023 China Viewership Statistics on Huya and DouYu

The qualifiers for The International 2023 in Dota 2 are taking place from August 17 to August 31 in six regional leagues of the Dota Pro Circuit: China, Southeast Asia, North and South America, as well as Western and Eastern Europe. The top teams from each region will have the opportunity to compete at the world championship along with the teams that previously received a direct invite based on their DPC points. All regional qualifiers have the same format — a single-elimination bracket. Only teams from the first and second divisions of the DPC are participating.

The South America and Eastern Europe regions will be the last to finish the qualification for The International 2023, with the champions being determined on August 26. You can follow the progress of these tournaments on the coverage pages. As for Southeast Asia and Western Europe, the qualifiers in these regions will take place from August 27 to August 31.