RLCS is on the rise — Rocket League majors gather more and more viewers, and community casting is one of the reasons

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When people talk about European esports, they usually refer to Dota 2, CS:GO, and League of Legends, overlooking a discipline like Rocket League. The game, developed and published by Psyonix, has been delighting fans with its engaging gameplay and cool collaborations for many years, and recently, it has been experiencing its second tournament renaissance. Interest in Rocket League as an esports discipline has been rapidly growing: official broadcasts are attracting more viewers, and popular community casters like Kamet0 and Moist Cr1tiKaL are bringing in new audiences to the majors.

Recently, the RLCS 2022-23 - Spring Split Major — the final major of the current season — ended in Boston. It became the second-highest tournament in the history of the discipline by concurrent viewership, second only to last year's World Championship. There is a high probability that in August we will see a new record, as the world's best teams will compete for the championship title at the RLCS 2022-23 — World Championship in Dusseldorf.

The official season of Rocket League consists of three majors — Fall, Winter, and Spring. In the current 2022-23 season, each major accumulated more Hours Watched than the previous one. While the RLCS 2022-23 - Fall Split Major had 2.7 million HW, the RLCS 2022-23 - Spring Split Major reached 4.2 million HW. The same trend can be observed in the number of viewers. The Average Viewers number for the majors throughout the season increased by 67%, and the Peak Viewers number increased by 78%.

Growth of Official Broadcast Channels

The positive trend at Rocket League majors is directly linked to the growth of official tournament broadcasting channels. For example, the English-language channel rocketleague saw an increase of almost 32% in its Hours Watched over the season. The French channel rocketbaguette, on the other hand, experienced a remarkable 86% growth in the same metric.

It is worth noting that English and French are the two main languages in the professional Rocket League scene. The discipline features several top clubs from North America and Europe, including FaZe Clan, Team Liquid, Complexity Gaming, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Secret, etc. However, the "French wing" of the discipline deserves a separate mention: Rocket League is very popular in France, and the country is regularly represented by teams like Karmine Corp., Team Vitality, and Team BDS at major tournaments. By the way, these three teams occupied the entire Top 3 in the recent Spring Split Major.

Role Of Community Casting In Discipline’s Development 

English and French broadcasts of Rocket League majors have seen significant growth in 2023. English broadcasts increased their Hours Watched by about 50% throughout the season, while the French language has experienced nearly a 100% growth in this metric. However, the proportions of official and community casting are quite different for both languages.

For English broadcasts, the share of official broadcasts at all three majors ranges from 86% to 89%. In terms of percentage, community casting gathers relatively fewer viewers, but in terms of numbers, we're talking about 200K-400K HW. Two out of the three majors in 2023 took place in the United States, where the content consumption culture leans more toward official broadcasts. In Europe, the position of community casters is significantly stronger.

For the French language, the ratio is different. During one of the three majors — RLCS 2022-23 Winter Split Major — community casters actually accumulated more Hours Watched than official broadcasts. This happened thanks to the community casting by Kamet0, a popular French streamer and co-owner of Karmine Corp. It was his team that won the winter tournament, and Kamet0 himself gathered nearly 100K PV when broadcasting Karmine matches.

Kamet0, in general, is one of those streamers who can significantly influence the audience reach of the entire tournament on his own. Apart from him, another notable streamer is Cr1TiKaL, an American and co-owner of the Moist Esports, he also often broadcasts matches of his own team.

Most Popular Rocket League Stream Channels

The official rocketleague channel on Twitch has become the most popular broadcasting channel in the current season of the discipline. Over the three majors, it accumulated 5.6 million HW and reached 131.4K PV. Among the community casters, Kamet0 emerged as the leader with 900K HW and 97.4K PV during his broadcasts.

On the one hand, the official league channel surpassed Kamet0 by six times in terms of HW. However, it's important to note that the French streamer primarily streamed only matches of his own team, Karmine, while the official channel showcased all games. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that both rankings are dominated by English and French channels, indicating the popularity of the discipline in these specific languages.

Moist Cr1tikal, a popular streamer from the USA, the founder and co-owner of the Moist team, also made it into the top community casters. Their team participated in the Fall and Spring Split Majors of Rocket League, and Moist Cr1tikal actively covered their matches. Rizzo, one of the players on Moist, also made it into the Top 5. He often hosts Watch Parties on his channel, where he broadcasts tournament matches.

Lastly, it's worth mentioning the rocketbaguette channel, which hosts official broadcasts in the French language. On July 9, this channel set a record for Peak Viewers during a stream, with over 53.3K viewers watching the grand finals of the Spring Split between Team Vitality and Team BDS concurrently. Although BDS is a Swiss club, primarily French players represent it, so many fans perceived this match as a French derby.

The high result of the rocketbaguette channel was also contributed by Kamet0. The Frenchman streamed Karmine's matches, but ended the broadcast after his team lost to Team Vitality in the lower bracket finals. After that, many French fans switched to watching the tournament on the official channel. Immediately after that, the rocketbaguette channel saw a peak in viewership, increasing from 38.8K to 53.3K viewers.

In 2023, Rocket League majors showed excellent audience reach. Tournaments for this discipline are attracting more and more viewers, and community casting plays a significant role in this. The organizers only need to interest Kamet0 and other top streamers to cover all the matches of the tournament, not just their team's games.

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RLCS 2022-23 - World Championship will take place from August 3 to 13 at the PSD Bank Dome in Dusseldorf. The tournament prize pool will be $2.1 million. There will be 24 teams participating in the tournament (16 of them starting from the Wild Card stage). Among the participants will be Gen.G, FaZe Clan, Karmine Corp, Team Liquid, Team Vitality, G2 Esports, Moist Esports, Team Secret, KRU Esports, and other organizations. You can follow the progress of the event on this page.