Hunger for The International 10 — event kicked off like never before

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It finally happened. Dota fans are happy after two years of waiting: The International 10 has begun. In recent months, the tournament has been suffering problems every now and then: relocation to another country, players catching coronavirus, the main event without spectators. But all this did not stop TI10 from taking the best start in the history of the championship.

Disclaimer: Data doesn't include statistics from Chinese streaming platforms!

The International 10 had a rough start, as the first matches of the tournament began with an 1.5H delay. But this only fueled more interest in the debut matches of the tournament. The very first game between the two-time world champions OG against Alliance attracted 437.9 thousand spectators at peak: this is 40% more than during the most popular match of the last TI's group stage day 1, when Team Secret played against Team Liquid.

The most popular game of the first day of the group stage was OG vs Virtus.pro. The match gathered two keys groups of Dota 2 viewers: English-speaking and Russian-speaking audiences, and at its peak the game gathered over 500 thousand spectators.

Interestingly, The International 10 has almost caught up with the 2018's iteration of the series in terms of peak audience. TI8 Grand Finals were simultaneously watched by over 1.2 million people, and the current peak of TI10 has already exceeded 1.13 million viewers! Note that the audience of matches is much lower than this mark, but this is due to the fact that several matches are being played at the same time at the TI group stage, and as of now the audience spread across different games.

Why are there so many TI10 viewers?

In addition to the obvious reason (it’s the first TI in two years!), an extremely serious viewership boost to the tournament is provided by the reward system on Twitch. Viewers can make predictions for matches and earn Battle Pass points, and an hour spent on the official broadcast grants viewers a new chest: The International 2021 Lineage Treasure.

And one more interesting fact: more than 90% of the tournament’s Hours Watched is generated on English and Russian streams. Despite the fact that Valve has organized official broadcasts in Portuguese and Spanish, fans from Brazil and Latin America have little interest in TI and prefer watching Worlds 2021.

Also Read: Worlds 2021 has started — and it’s already getting more viewers compared to last year

The International 10 is more successful compared to all other TIs, at least for now. This is due to both the long break in the series and the system of rewards on Twitch. The event has almost overtaken TI8 in peak viewership, and this is the first day of the group stage! The further it goes, the better it gets?