The International 2024 got off to one of the worst starts in the history of the series

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Recently, The International 2024, the Dota 2 world championship organized by Valve, kicked off in Copenhagen. This year, the event has garnered even less attention than before due to minimal promotional activities. The schedule and team matchups were revealed just a few days before the tournament started, leading to complaints from both players and broadcasting staff. Consequently, The International 2024 is experiencing record lows in prize pool growth, and early broadcast metrics show a decline in viewer interest.

The International 2024 Viewership Statistics - Day 1

As the group stage of The International 2024 concludes and teams secure their positions for the playoffs, Team Spirit has emerged as the standout performer. The two-time world champions won all three of their group matches and topped their group. Xtreme Gaming and Cloud9 have also demonstrated strong performances, leading their respective groups. The playoff matches are set to begin on September 8.

On the first day of broadcasts, The International 2024 garnered just over 4.6 million Hours Watched, a 12.7% decrease compared to the previous tournament and one of the lowest results in recent years. Other metrics were also disappointing: average viewership dropped by 6.8% compared to the first day of TI2023, and peak viewership plummeted by a dramatic 32.9%.

Regarding language broadcasts, Russian, English, and Spanish have maintained their proportions compared to last year. However, all languages have seen a decline of approximately 25-30% in Average Viewers.

A significant factor contributing to the drop in viewership is the reduced role of community casting. Independent streamers, who often account for a substantial portion of the audience, have decreased almost twofold compared to last year. Notably, several popular Russian-speaking community casters, such as Arthas and rostislav_999, are absent this year, which could have contributed tens of thousands of viewers to the tournament's statistics.