PUBG Mobile and Dota 2 are record-breakers for number of esports broadcast languages in 2022

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The popularity of a particular esports discipline can be assessed by the number of languages used to cover its tournaments. Esports Charts has compiled a ranking of games with the highest language diversity on broadcasts in 2022.

PUBG Mobile Battle Royale became the leader by the number of broadcast languages — its PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2022 tournament was covered in 31 languages, including some of the less common languages in esports, such as Albanian, Burmese, Greek, and Serbian. It should be noted that this number of languages for a PUBG Mobile tournament is rather an exception. If we take a look at the statistics for the entire year, there were just over 60 PUBG Mobile tournaments (with prize pools over $50K). The Average number of broadcast languages used for these tournaments was 4.98, which is the 14th-highest total among the disciplines.

Dota 2, Valorant, CS:GO and PUBG: Battlegrounds are also in the Top 5 in terms of Peak Languages. The world championships in these disciplines were covered concurrently in more than 20 languages. 

StarCraft II is the only non-team game to rank in the Top 5 in terms of the average number of broadcast languages

Dota 2 has the highest average number of broadcast languages — in 2022, its tournaments were covered in more than 12 languages on average. The leader among them was The International 2022, the matches of which were streamed in as many as 28 languages (this is the second-highest number after PUBG Mobile).

What games show the greatest diversity in broadcast languages?

The number of broadcast languages is highly dependent on the geographic range of the esports scene. For example, Dota 2 has a Dota Pro Circuit season with six regional leagues featuring teams from around the world. CS:GO has a slightly different system, but it also has Majors and regional qualifiers. It should be noted that the leaders in terms of the average number of languages are quite old titlites that are more than ten years old. They have a huge fan base all over the world, and tournaments often welcome community casting.

On the other hand, there is an example of sports simulators like Madden NFL and NBA 2K, which are almost at the bottom of the rankings in terms of the average number of languages (1-1.5 on average). That is because they are niche disciplines — they are popular only in the U.S. and rarely covered in languages other than English. The situation is similar with the original StarCraft: BroodWar, which is currently played only in South Korea. Thus, the tournaments played in this classic RTS are mostly covered in Korean.

It is interesting that Overwatch and Call of Duty are also at the bottom of the ranking in terms of language diversity, although these games are popular in different countries. Overwatch, for example, has a large audience in China and South Korea. But in terms of the esports scene, both shooters have problems — on average, Overwatch League and Call of Duty League matches are broadcasted in fewer than two languages, which is a very low number for such popular titles. 

What is the reason for this result? First of all, Overwatch League and Call of Duty are very closely tied to the American scene. In addition, they have a franchise format, which means that teams from other countries or regions can not qualify for them. Secondly, Activision Blizzard has a very inflexible policy when it comes to coverage of their leagues. The company signs exclusive contracts with certain platforms and almost never cooperates with community casters. Note that in 2023 the situation has become better. For example, the Call of Duty League began streaming again on Twitch, and popular community casters now participate in match coverage. 

The increase in the number of broadcast languages in tournaments helps to attract new viewers and make the game more popular. In this case, the decisive role is still played by a tournament operator or a publisher promoting a game in esports.