Lowest Viewership of All 2023 Majors: The Bali Major 2023 Group Stage Sees Decreased Viewership

The Bali Major 2023 is the last major of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2023 season, and the playoffs are currently underway. With the group stages recently concluded, some stats as shown by Esports Charts highlight the low viewership numbers of the Major when compared to other Majors of the 2023 season (Lima and Berlin Major). 

The event has experienced a decline in viewership compared to its predecessors in Berlin and Lima, falling short by 26% and 36% respectively in Total Hours Watched during the group stage. 

The Decreased Viewership - Some Stats

The group stage matches of The Bali Major 2023 accumulated a total of 8.1 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers went up to 144.1K, with a Peak Viewership of 255.8K viewers, which was achieved during the fourth day of the group stage when multiple matches were taking place concurrently. 

The most popular series was the match between Gaimin Gladiators and Quest Esports, attracting approximately 214.8K Peak Viewers. Both teams in the series were Western European (WEU), which may indicate that viewers are more inclined to watch matches with teams from these regions.

When compared to the stats of the Berlin Major 2023, there are notable decreases in all the key metrics. For example, when compared to the total Hours Watched by viewers during the group stages of the Berlin Major 2023, there is a decrease of 26%, with a 27% drop of average viewership, and an overall decrease of 21% in peak viewership for the Indonesian Dota 2 Major.

Additionally, when compared to the viewership of Majors from 2022, there is an even bigger discrepancy, where PGL Arlington Major 2022 had a peak viewership of 707.9k viewers, an average viewership of 305.2k, and a total of 33.7 million total Hours Watched. 

The ESL One Stockholm Major in 2022 also had higher metrics, with 589k peak viewers, 252.2k average viewers, and 28.1 million total Hours Watched. 

Looking even further back to 2021, the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021 also had higher metrics, with a peak viewership 597.7k, average viewership of 194.6k, and total Hours Watched of 20.3 million. 

However, it should be noted that the statistics for the 2022 and 2023 Majors are numbers at the end of the tournament, while the Bali Major 2023 is currently ongoing in its playoffs stage. While the numbers for Bali Major 2023 may increase towards the end of the tournament, it is still considerably lagging behind the other majors from the past. 

Possible reasons for decreased viewership

Inconvenient Time Zones

The Bali Major's match schedule posed challenges for viewers in Europe, as matches often began early, causing them to miss a significant portion of the games. Europe remains the primary region for the professional Dota 2 landscape, both in terms of results and viewership activity.

Decreased Suspense

The Bali Major awards more DPC ranking points than previous tournaments. However, many of the invites for The International 2023 had already been announced before the event began, with eight out of twelve teams already securing their spots by the time the playoffs began. Consequently, only five participating teams are directly competing for points to secure an invitation, reducing the overall suspense for viewers.

While The Bali Major 2023 has showcased impressive gameplay and will eventually determine the final teams qualifying for The International 2023, the group stage has experienced a decline in viewership compared to previous majors. Factors such as inconvenient time zones and decreased suspense may have contributed to this decrease. Nevertheless, there are a few days left of the tournament and fans will be excited to watch some of the worlds best teams compete to win the title of the last Major of the season.