ESL Pro League Season 17 audience analysis — broadcast languages, channels and platforms dynamics

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Esports Charts has prepared a detailed audience analysis of ESL Pro League Season 17, a CS:GO tournament. Learn about the most popular languages and broadcast channels, as well as the dynamics of the streaming platforms compared with the last season. The format change, the return of official YouTube broadcasts, and the stop of NimoTV coverage had a big effect on the tournament's performance. 

Language Dynamics at ESL Pro League Season 17

ESL Pro League Season 17 Language Dynamics

ESL Pro League Season 17 English broadcasts accumulated nearly 18 million Hours Watched, the best total among all the languages in which the tournament was covered. During Season 16, English broadcasts accumulated almost 20 million Hours Watched, a drop of about 9.4% compared with the last season.

Similar dynamics can be observed for Russian-language broadcasts. At ESL Pro League Season 17, their total Hours Watched decreased 17.8% compared with the previous season — even despite the fact that in the Grand Final, Cloud9 featured a squad with players from Russia and Kazakhstan. It is interesting to note that at the semifinals, Cloud9 vs. ENCE drew 67.4K Peak Viewers on the Russian broadcast, and the Natus Vincere vs. FaZe Clan match that followed attracted 110.2K PV. If NAVI had made it to the final, the final numbers for the Russian-language broadcast would have been higher.

Portuguese was the only major CS:GO language to show growth. During ESL Pro League Season 17, broadcasts in Portuguese accumulated nearly 8 million HW, an increase of 33.8%. All thanks to the increase in the number of participants from Brazil. In Season 16, there were only two teams representing Brazil, but in Season 17, there were five.

We should also note the decline in Vietnamese: compared with the last season, it lost 86% of the total Hours Watched. This is the worst result among the languages that are in the Top 5 by this metric. The reason for such a big drop is the change in platform. During ESL Pro League Season 16, the Vietnamese broadcasts were on NimoTV, where they gathered a large audience, partly thanks to autoplay. In April 2022, NimoTV's parent company cut funding for the platform, causing it to stop operating in many major countries, including Brazil and Indonesia. After that, most tournament operators stopped using NimoTV to cover their events, and Vietnamese CS:GO broadcasts moved to YouTube. On the new platform, the numbers were much more modest.

Platforms Dynamics at ESL Pro League Season 17

Comparing ESL Pro League Season 16 and ESL Pro League Season 17 by platform 

Twitch has remained the main streaming platform for the series, but has seen a decline in all metrics, including Hours Watched, Peak and Average Viewers. This can be attributed to a change in format. In Season 17, the organizers increased the number of participants from 24 to 32 teams, but replaced the usual Group Stage with triple-elimination brackets. There were more matches, but the first rounds of the brackets were played concurrently, not sequentially like in the previous season. Because of this, many matches fell short in terms of viewership. Another important nuance: because of the new format, teams no longer had to play against each opponent in their group. Because of this, some potentially hot matches simply did not take place.

The decline of Twitch statistics was also partly due to the dramatic growth of YouTube. The fact is that ESL's exclusive agreement with Twitch expired in 2023, after which the tournament operator resumed official broadcasts on YouTube. Previously, this platform was used only by some studios and streamers from Serbia, Slovenia and some European countries. When ESL launched its own English-language streams on YouTube, the reach of the platform increased dramatically: the total Hours Watched increased by 395% compared with the last tournament, the Peak Viewers number rose by 378%, and the Average Viewers number increased by 381%.

We have already mentioned the NimoTV's absence — there were no ESL Pro League Season 17 broadcasts there. But unofficial streams of tournament matches were available on the new Kick.com platform (these data are not included in the overall statistics!). 

Top Channels at ESL Pro League Season 17

Gaules show progress

The most popular ESL Pro League Season 17 channels include ESL's three official English-language channels (two on Twitch and one on YouTube), Brazilian streamer Gaules' channel, and Maincast Studios' Russian-language channel.

The dynamics of these channels are very similar to the dynamics of the languages: the main channels ESL_CSGO and Maincast lost 33.6% and 30.7% of the total Hours Watched they had at ESL Pro League Season 16, respectively. The Peak Viewers number dropped by 18% and 21.8%, respectively.

In contrast, the Gaules channel showed growth — it accumulated 28% more Hours Watched than it had at the previous season, and its Peak Viewers number increased by 84%. It is interesting that the most popular match on its broadcast was the game of FURIA Esports against Imperial Esports — the Brazilian derby on Gaules channel was watched by 156K PV. 

Most Popular Teams in Different Languages 

Interesting choice for Mongolian

FaZe Clan became the most popular team in the English-language broadcast — its matches were watched 135.2K AV. Brazilian teams gathered the largest audience on the Portuguese broadcast. In particular, the FURIA Esports games saw 77.3K AV. As for the Russian-language streams, the Natus Vincere matches saw the peak of viewership activity.

Other interesting results include the fact that the most popular team on the Mongolian broadcast was Fnatic. The French, on the other hand, actively followed Team Vitality games.

***

ESL Pro League Season 17 was not the most popular tournament in the series, but still gathered a large audience comparable with the previous seasons. The new format, the increase in the number of participants and the change in the list of platforms for broadcasting — all these factors had no critical effect on the popularity of the series, which indicates a high credibility of the tournament operator among viewers.