Which Were the Most Viewed Teams in TI10’s Qualifiers?

Fans of Dota 2 were treated to quite a spectacle during The International 10 (TI10)’s qualifiers, as many of the top rosters took part. Teams like TNC Predator, Team Nigma, OG, Team Spirit, and others were present during the qualifiers, but only one team from each region made it to Dota 2's biggest stage. Since TI10's qualifiers were marked by such fierce competition, a record number of fans tuned into livestreams to watch their favorite teams compete. As a matter of fact, the lower bracket series between Team Nigma and OG in TI10’s Western Europe (WEU) qualifier had a peak viewership of 546,300, making it the most watched qualifier game since 2016.

Esports Charts, a data tracking website, recently published a blog, detailing some more interesting stats about the viewership numbers of these qualifiers.

Western European teams attract the most viewers in TI10 Qualifiers

In the WEU qualifiers, OG attracted the most viewers with an average of 337k viewers. Additionally, this helped them become the most popular team in all six qualifiers. Also, Tundra Esports, who had a competitive grand final against OG but lost 3-2, attracted a large audience. With 291k viewers on average, Tundra Esports was the second most watched team in all six qualifiers followed by Team Nigma who was the third most watched with 261k.

Team Nigma ended up being eliminated after losing to Team OG in the lower bracket final. During its peak, this series attracted 546k viewers, breaking multiple records.

Vikin.gg and Team Liquid did not make it far but they also had a lot of people thronging to watch them in action. While Vikin.gg had 163k average viewers, Team Liquid had 147k.

SEA Viewership

The SEA teams were the most popular after the WEU teams. Despite not winning the grand final and booking a spot at TI10, TNC Predator was still the most-watched team of the SEA region with an average viewership of 134k. In fact, Fnatic came close with 129k average viewers. However, they will be pleased with their 3-2 victory over TNC in the grand finals, which gave them the TI10 spot.

Western Europe reigns supreme while Southeast Asia impresses in TI10 Qualifiers

TI10’s WEU qualifier was the most watched qualifier out of all six regions. According to the stats, it “outperformed the rest by almost 100% in all three categories.”

• Peak viewers - 546k

• Average viewers - 216k

• Hours watched - 10.9 million

TI10’s SEA qualifier was the second most-watched qualifier. It arguably was the most interesting to watch as several games went past 60 minutes. The teams were reluctant to push the high grounds in many of these games which led to a bunch of crazy Dota 2 action.

• Peak viewers - 258k

• Average viewers - 106k

• Hours watched - 5.6 million

Eastern Europe (EEU) was the third most watched qualifier after WEU and SEA. It turns out that EEU and SEA were actually quite close in terms of viewership, as the former had 222k peak viewers, 109k average viewers, and 5.5 million total viewing hours.

The least amount of viewers were in China, North America, and South America. For China, perhaps a lot of fans throng in on local Chinese streams, making the total number of Chinese viewers a little ambiguous.

The majority of fan-favorite teams will still play at TI10 tournament, even if some of them will be missing out. One of the biggest teams is OG who will return to The International and defend their title. When you consider this with the fact that TI is returning after a long delay, as well as the likely restrictions on the number of live spectators at the Arena Nationala stadium in Bucharest, Romania, a lot of online viewing records might be broken this year.