OpTic Texas' record-extending win almost drives CDL 24 Playoffs to record watch time mark

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The latest season of the Modern Warfare III esports has come to an end with the conduct of the Call of Duty League Championship 2024. While it could not match the efforts of the 2023 iteration, the viewership numbers were close enough to make it the second most-watched post-season event in the Call of Duty League, ending the season on a high despite its inability to sustain the Regular Season growths made last year.

Held at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, from July 18 to 21, the CDL Championship saw OpTic Texas emerge victorious to send home fans into a tizzy. The most popular side in the game eased past defending champion New York Subliners 5:1 to end a troubled season on a high.

  OpTic Texas won its first world title in four seasons and its second since 2020   

The win handed the Texas-based side $800,000 in winnings out of a total prize pool of $2,000,000. Meanwhile, the runner-up took home $480,000 to cap off another highly consistent year that saw it win the final Major of the season to come into the season-ending finale on a high. Unfortunately, it ran into a rejuvenated OpTic Texas, which also broke its over-two-year Major drought with a victory in Major 3.

It also became the only side to win this version of the world championship, which began in 2020 under the Modern Warfare umbrella, twice, with its previous iteration, Dallas Empire, winning the inaugural season in 2020. With Team Envy and OpTic Gaming, who merged in 2021 to form OpTic Texas, winning the Call of Duty World League Championship in consecutive years (2016, 2017), the new world champion also extended its reputation as the most successful franchise across different editions of the global event.

  Call of Duty League 2024 Playoffs – top matches and basic viewership stats   

The Call of Duty League 2024 Playoffs peaked at 283.1K viewers for the Grand Final between OpTic Texas and New York Subliners. The two had already faced off beforehand, in the Winners Final the former edged 3:2 which ended as the tournament's second most popular match, so there was extra motivation for the NY-based side.

With history beckoning the latter in the form of back-to-back world championship wins that would have made it the first side to win this iteration twice, there was enough hype around the match to attract a large crowd. With so much at stake, and the prominent teams doing well, this CoD competition also registered 4M Hours Watched and 128.8K Average Viewers over 31 hours of airtime.

There are no surprises as to which was the most popular team at the CDL 2024 Playoffs, although one name will be a bit disappointed with its showing. Atlanta FaZe has built a reputation as perhaps the most consistent side in the CDL across its five seasons, finishing as the topper in every Regular Season and having the most World Championship Grand Final appearances at three.

It has also won the most Majors in the five seasons of the Call of Duty League, which has made it one of the more popular sides in the league. However, its showing at this year's season-ending finale will have left the Atalanta-based side a little disappointed, considering it last won the world championship in 2021 and had its last Grand Final appearance a year later.

  Call of Duty League 2024 Playoffs – top streamers  

A big reason for the success of this tournament, and the highly successful last two seasons, has been the coverage provided by Scump and ZooMaa Live. The former, especially, regularly attracted more viewers than the official channels, and his eminence among COD fans was crucial to recent events hitting milestone marks.

It must also be noted that the return to YouTube-only broadcasts this season was a mixed bag. None of the Majors stood out in terms of audience reach, which was in contrast to 2023, when the competitions were being spread across platforms, including Twitch, helping them emerge as some of the most popular events in CDL history.

  Most watched world championships of the Call of Duty League’s current iteration   

Sticking to viewership figures, the CDL 2024 Playoffs finished as the second-most watched world championship in the league's current version. It was behind last year's iteration by only 9.98%, which is quite commendable considering most of the event was live-streamed on one streaming service.

It is also the third most popular Finals since 2020, with the leader being the 2020 iteration that remains the only one to surpass 300K PV. That viewership rewards were available also seemed to do the trick — as beta codes for the highly anticipated, upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 were up for grabs — apart from the obvious win for the home favorites and the discipline's most followed side.

  Most watched COD World Championships across various editions   

This season-ender also finished as the third most-watched world championship and fourth-most popular one overall. Overall, it was a strong finish to a season that at times seemed to be petering out, especially when a few Majors did not perform as well, leading to the CDL 2024 Regular Season seeing a 29% dip in average viewers compared to last year.

With the end of another season of one of COD's games, the focus shifts to its other offerings, Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile. Their global events — World Series of Warzone 2024 - Global Finals and Call of Duty Mobile World Championship 2024 — will be held in August and October, respectively, promising fans of the franchise much more action before the post season closes for good.