NEW YORK—June 13, 2011—Major League Gaming (MLG), the world's largest professional video game league and largest provider of cross platform online videogame competition, shattered previous MLG records delivering more than 22.5 million stream views of the Columbus Pro Circuit weekend of competition, nearly double the reported 11.4 million NFL.com video streams consumed during the weekend of the 2011 NFL Draft. Viewers from 164 countries watched four live streams during the three-day, double elimination tournament online at www.majorleaguegaming.com for a total of more than 2.2 million hours of video consumed. Rebroadcasts of all Columbus Pro Circuit matches are available on MLG.tv.
In addition to the online viewers, more than 16,000 fans attended over the course of the weekend and more than 1,300 players from around the world competed making it the largest Pro Circuit competition in MLG history. The Columbus competition was the second stop on the six-city MLG Pro Circuit. The tour places the most talented video game players alongside their toughest opponents as they battle for more than $1 million in prizes and stipends throughout the year.
The Pro Circuit season will continue with stops in Anaheim, CA (July 29-31), Raleigh, NC (August 26-28) and Orlando, FL (October 14-16), culminating with the national championship in Providence, RI this fall (November 18-20). MLG is working with Streamworks to deliver live and on demand coverage of all 2011 and 2012 Pro Circuit competitions.
There were 22.5 million "stream views" and 2.2 million hours of video consumed... So unless I'm missing something the average stream view lasted for about 6 minutes...
I think a couple million of those views were me refreshing because the stream wouldn't switch back from prerecorded video to live events on its own.
Not to be a Debbie downer, but are these views unique? Otherwise, it's probably 10,000-20,000 people refreshing everytime the stream locked up or lagged out.
Nonetheless, it was an impressive weekend and event. I was so glad to be able to watch all of it with no regrets of dishing a weekend away, it was truly spectacular!
But what was highest number of people watching the streams? I now i properly stand for 100 of those views because i had to reload the stream due to it sometimes lagging.
Stream views is just numbers for advertisers IMO, doesn't really say that much.
On June 13 2011 23:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Not to be a Debbie downer, but are these views unique? Otherwise, it's probably 10,000-20,000 people refreshing everytime the stream locked up or lagged out.
Nonetheless, it was an impressive weekend and event. I was so glad to be able to watch all of it with no regrets of dishing a weekend away, it was truly spectacular!
The same conditions apply with the NFL thing, but yet they had 11 million less views. Its still pretty damn impressive.
good job MLG!!!!!
EDIT: Just did the Maths, i assumed that on average a viewer refreshed or tuned in 40 times.
On June 13 2011 23:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Not to be a Debbie downer, but are these views unique? Otherwise, it's probably 10,000-20,000 people refreshing everytime the stream locked up or lagged out.
Nonetheless, it was an impressive weekend and event. I was so glad to be able to watch all of it with no regrets of dishing a weekend away, it was truly spectacular!
I don't think people refreshed 1000 times No that's probably not unique viewers, even with the Halo/CoD fanbase I don't think we could get 22 mil.
On June 13 2011 23:46 aristarchus wrote: There were 22.5 million "stream views" and 2.2 million hours of video consumed... So unless I'm missing something the average stream view lasted for about 6 minutes...
I think a couple million of those views were me refreshing because the stream wouldn't switch back from prerecorded video to live events on its own.
It could be, i mean... i refreshed streams A TON of times so i probably contributed with more than 500 views myself.
On June 13 2011 23:48 windzor wrote: But what was highest number of people watching the streams? I now i properly stand for 100 of those views because i had to reload the stream due to it sometimes lagging.
Stream views is just numbers for advertisers IMO, doesn't really say that much.
My guess is that they are only counting unique viewership, and that it is pretty obvious to MLG that doing otherwise would be subject to inflated numbers through refreshing.
But 22.5 million unique viewers does sound a bit out of place for a video game event. Or possibly not?
It would be cool to know the amount of unique views the stream had to give a better number of how many people actually turned in, but still 22.5 million views of the stream is epic, and must make the sponsoring company's happy :D
On June 13 2011 23:46 aristarchus wrote: There were 22.5 million "stream views" and 2.2 million hours of video consumed... So unless I'm missing something the average stream view lasted for about 6 minutes...
I think a couple million of those views were me refreshing because the stream wouldn't switch back from prerecorded video to live events on its own.
It could be, i mean... i refreshed streams A TON of times so i probably contributed with more than 500 views myself.
I probably refreshed close to 200-300 times over the course of the weekend. The pauses in the stream happened every 5 minutes or so.
As already stated, the number is very nice, but you can't make much of it unfortunately. During those three days with refreshing and switching the streams, I might have around 300 stream views.
I'd like to know total number of unique viewers and peak number for SC streams.
On June 13 2011 23:47 Torte de Lini wrote: Not to be a Debbie downer, but are these views unique? Otherwise, it's probably 10,000-20,000 people refreshing everytime the stream locked up or lagged out.
Nonetheless, it was an impressive weekend and event. I was so glad to be able to watch all of it with no regrets of dishing a weekend away, it was truly spectacular!
The same conditions apply with the NFL thing, but yet they had 11 million less views. Its still pretty damn impressive.
Big numbers :O) Shame I don't actually understand it 22 million different people watching it (seems far to high) or 22 million times people loaded a stream ?
Dunno about anyone else but I watched both Starcraft steams at the same time often refreshing and I switched between all 4 streams in breaks in play.
Anyway with numbers like that even if you /10 the final number and suggest that is would be the average amount of refreshes per person we are still talking total number of people in the millions
I guess with these numbers we know why sundance was optimistic about having a free HQ every MLG. LOL it will pay for itself and more! 2011 is the year of MLG.
Note that 22mill views even with refresh means 22million advertisements played because switching stream and resolution is an ad.
i do wonder myself. i know i had at least 2 stream going maybe even 6 at a time in my house with it playing on all the diff rooms in my house. Also it did have to be refreshed a lot when it would black screen and just sit there.
I'm too lazy to look up the exact schedule, but let's assume there were 8 hours of stream for each of the three days. (It was more, I'm pretty sure, but some of it it near the ends I'm also sure had much lower viewership.) There were 4 streams between the three games... So that's 3x8x4=96 hours of streams. If that to 2.2 million hours of video seen, then average viewership is something like 2.2mil/96, or about 23k.
On top of that, I'm willing to be a lot of starcraft viewers had two streams open. So average viewership is probably below 23k per stream. It's good, and maybe starcraft was substantially above average, but it's totally in line with TSL, NASL, and other pretty normal starcraft events. Nothing that surprising here. (On the other hand, if this is a huge record for MLG, I'm willing to bet that their focus on starcraft only increases.)
22.5 million streams sounds HUGE, but I wonder how many unique viewers really tuned in. If it only was 1% (which equals 225.000 Viewers) this would be a tremendous succes and still leaves room for growth. Keep up the good work MLG.
On June 14 2011 00:08 MLG_Lee wrote: 22.5M streams served... over 450K unique stream viewers.
We don't break out streams by titles.
450k HOLY SHI-
Now THAT'S impressive.
Btw, with 22.5M streams, considering that about 20% could use add-block(me included), that's 18M advertisements through a weekend. Make it 2 cents per ads(I'm not sure, I'm just making assumptions) that's 360k dollars through a weekend.
On June 14 2011 00:08 MLG_Lee wrote: 22.5M streams served... over 450K unique stream viewers.
We don't break out streams by titles.
You don't know the numbers or you won't publicly release them? I can understand why you might not want to release the viewers per title, but not having that information internally seems like a huge gap in your ability to know what spectators are watching. Surely you have someone to tell the sponsors and owners of the games.
I think there's a solid reason why they don't break out the numbers by titles. There's no doubt in my mind that Halo and CoD would be towered by the enormous numbers of StarCraft 2. It's probably a very proper decision on their part. Let's just hope that the popularity of SC2 can also help with the growth of other games. The more #'s the better regardless of which game viewers are flocking to!
On June 14 2011 00:18 djWHEAT wrote: I think there's a solid reason why they don't break out the numbers by titles. There's no doubt in my mind that Halo and CoD would be towered by the enormous numbers of StarCraft 2. It's probably a very proper decision on their part. Let's just hope that the popularity of SC2 can also help with the growth of other games. The more #'s the better regardless of which game viewers are flocking to!
This, The number from Dreamhacks SC2 tournament in Stockholm supports this (>450k). Sc2 is really a giant in gaming streaming right now.
On June 14 2011 00:08 MLG_Lee wrote: 22.5M streams served... over 450K unique stream viewers.
We don't break out streams by titles.
450k HOLY SHI-
Now THAT'S impressive.
Btw, with 22.5M streams, considering that about 20% could use add-block(me included), that's 18M advertisements through a weekend. Make it 2 cents per ads(I'm not sure, I'm just making assumptions) that's 360k dollars through a weekend.
I think its okay.
<edit> @up 450k is a record in SC2 history afaik.
450k isn't only SC2 tho. So can't quite be called SC2 history. But still an amazing statistic. I'm really happy MLG Columbus turned out so well. MLGs are the most important SC2 events in America for sure!
One thing to consider is if you look on the MLG forums is that the Halo and CoD forums are vastly more active than the SC2...though TL might have something to do with that
*jaw dropped* Wow ! Holy flying fuck I'd say ! Event was awesome, games were awesome, players were awesome, drama was awesome ! Can't wait for the next MLG :D
On June 14 2011 00:23 Sandro wrote: Say MLG, when are you gonna increase the SC2 prize pool
Yea, looks like MLG is getting the SC2 fans for a really low price pool cost. They put more money total in the other games. The price pool goes deeper in Halo and CoD.
On June 14 2011 00:18 djWHEAT wrote: I think there's a solid reason why they don't break out the numbers by titles. There's no doubt in my mind that Halo and CoD would be towered by the enormous numbers of StarCraft 2. It's probably a very proper decision on their part. Let's just hope that the popularity of SC2 can also help with the growth of other games. The more #'s the better regardless of which game viewers are flocking to!
CEO and Revelations was awesome this weekend. MK9, MvC3, SF4AE at next MLG? Actually wasn't MK9 at Cbus, just not streamed, i wonder who won.
It might have been more than 450,000 people. Remember, not everyone watches on a different IP. I know me and my buddies watched on one screen/internet connection.
On June 14 2011 00:16 Jiddra wrote: Dreamhack Inv. in Stockholm had over 450 000 uniqe views, so I guess that MLG has a lot of SC2 fans watching and fewer on the other streams.
It's hard to directly compare Dreamhack and MLG as their competitions have different lineups:
Dreamhack for instance has 6 different games:
Counter-Strike 1.6 Quake Live Super Street Fighter IV Tekken 6 StarCraft II Heroes of Newerth
Whereas MLG only had 3 games:
Call of Duty Halo Reach Starcraft II
In either case, I wasn't aware Dreamhack garnered that many unique views, this is awesome to hear! I personally can't wait to see the numbers for the Summer Dreamhack
On June 14 2011 00:18 djWHEAT wrote: I think there's a solid reason why they don't break out the numbers by titles. There's no doubt in my mind that Halo and CoD would be towered by the enormous numbers of StarCraft 2. It's probably a very proper decision on their part. Let's just hope that the popularity of SC2 can also help with the growth of other games. The more #'s the better regardless of which game viewers are flocking to!
CEO and Revelations was awesome this weekend. MK9, MvC3, SF4AE at next MLG? Actually wasn't MK9 at Cbus, just not streamed, i wonder who won.
Thats not going to happen, fighting game fans hate any corporate influence and instead prefer to stay community based. A shame really.
On June 14 2011 00:26 Chill wrote: These numbers are useless. It's cool that a meaningless number is really high, but I'd prefer some numbers that mean something.
On June 14 2011 00:16 Jiddra wrote: Dreamhack Inv. in Stockholm had over 450 000 uniqe views, so I guess that MLG has a lot of SC2 fans watching and fewer on the other streams.
It's hard to directly compare Dreamhack and MLG as their competitions have different lineups:
Dreamhack for instance has 6 different games:
Counter-Strike 1.6 Quake Live Super Street Fighter IV Tekken 6 StarCraft II Heroes of Newerth
Whereas MLG only had 3 games:
Call of Duty Halo Reach Starcraft II
In either case, I wasn't aware Dreamhack garnered that many unique views, this is awesome to hear! I personally can't wait to see the numbers for the Summer Dreamhack
You are comparing the wrong thing.
The Dreamhack Inv. in Stockholm was a 100% SC2 event over one day.
no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
On June 14 2011 00:08 MLG_Lee wrote: 22.5M streams served... over 450K unique stream viewers.
We don't break out streams by titles.
450k HOLY SHI-
Now THAT'S impressive.
Btw, with 22.5M streams, considering that about 20% could use add-block(me included), that's 18M advertisements through a weekend. Make it 2 cents per ads(I'm not sure, I'm just making assumptions) that's 360k dollars through a weekend.
I think its okay.
<edit> @up 450k is a record in SC2 history afaik.
No - the first GSL match with Boxer broke 700k viewers
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
this. sitting up to 06am doesnt cut it for most europeans.
On June 14 2011 00:26 Chill wrote: These numbers are useless. It's cool that a meaningless number is really high, but I'd prefer some numbers that mean something.
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
well, unique means click once no? It was on both saturday and sunday evening in europe and saturday, sunday and monday morning in korea.
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
well, unique means click once no? It was on both saturday and sunday evening in europe and saturday, sunday and monday morning in korea.
Its worse than just evenings in EU. If you want to watch it, it starts at like midnight and finishes at like 6am. Which is pretty much the opposite of my sleep schedule :D. Halo used to finish at like 3am but SC2 like to last longer... So it looks like in the summer I'm messing up my sleep schedule for this :D.
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
well, unique means click once no? It was on both saturday and sunday evening in europe and saturday, sunday and monday morning in korea.
Its worse than just evenings in EU. If you want to watch it, it starts at like midnight and finishes at like 6am. Which is pretty much the opposite of my sleep schedule :D. Halo used to finish at like 3am but SC2 like to last longer... So it looks like in the summer I'm messing up my sleep schedule for this :D.
you are wrong, check the calendar and then say it's not perfect timing to generate at least one click from an european gamer
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
well, unique means click once no? It was on both saturday and sunday evening in europe and saturday, sunday and monday morning in korea.
Its worse than just evenings in EU. If you want to watch it, it starts at like midnight and finishes at like 6am. Which is pretty much the opposite of my sleep schedule :D. Halo used to finish at like 3am but SC2 like to last longer... So it looks like in the summer I'm messing up my sleep schedule for this :D.
you are wrong, check the calendar and then say it's not perfect timing to generate at least one click from an european gamer
Stream will probably start at 17:00 CEST (+02:00) + Show Spoiler [Full Schedule] +
(Event is finished) Event Time: 23:00 KST
16:00 CEST
10:00 EDT
07:00 PDT
16:00 CEST
MLG Columbus 2011 Day 3
+ Show Spoiler [Full Schedule] +
(Event is finished) Event Time: 23:00 KST
16:00 CEST
10:00 EDT
07:00 PDT
16:00 CEST
I don't understand anything in those time zones oO. I just know MLG was during my sleep time but that may have something to do with my exams coming up and me needing a proper sleep schedule :D. I did watch a bit of sunday though as that was earlier.
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
well, unique means click once no? It was on both saturday and sunday evening in europe and saturday, sunday and monday morning in korea.
Its worse than just evenings in EU. If you want to watch it, it starts at like midnight and finishes at like 6am. Which is pretty much the opposite of my sleep schedule :D. Halo used to finish at like 3am but SC2 like to last longer... So it looks like in the summer I'm messing up my sleep schedule for this :D.
you are wrong, check the calendar and then say it's not perfect timing to generate at least one click from an european gamer
Stream will probably start at 17:00 CEST (+02:00) + Show Spoiler [Full Schedule] +
(Event is finished) Event Time: 23:00 KST
16:00 CEST
10:00 EDT
07:00 PDT
16:00 CEST
MLG Columbus 2011 Day 3
+ Show Spoiler [Full Schedule] +
(Event is finished) Event Time: 23:00 KST
16:00 CEST
10:00 EDT
07:00 PDT
16:00 CEST
I don't understand anything in those time zones oO. I just know MLG was during my sleep time but that may have something to do with my exams coming up and me needing a proper sleep schedule :D. I did watch a bit of sunday though as that was earlier.
it pretty much says that both saturday and sunday began at 16:00 CEST. (central european time. 15:00 in UK.) which isnt bad at all. therefore, everybody interested in MLG would've had plenty of hours to tune in once and count as a unique viewer, even though they might have not been there for the final that aired around 02:00 CEST.
On June 14 2011 00:28 busbarn wrote: no one disappointed it's just 450? I mean it's three games and three days. I thought the stream quality and content would at least generate one million clicks, considering how many gamers got internet nowdays. I feel like the word of MLG could've been spread a bit better
It is on bad EU/KR time.
well, unique means click once no? It was on both saturday and sunday evening in europe and saturday, sunday and monday morning in korea.
Its worse than just evenings in EU. If you want to watch it, it starts at like midnight and finishes at like 6am. Which is pretty much the opposite of my sleep schedule :D. Halo used to finish at like 3am but SC2 like to last longer... So it looks like in the summer I'm messing up my sleep schedule for this :D.
you are wrong, check the calendar and then say it's not perfect timing to generate at least one click from an european gamer
Stream will probably start at 17:00 CEST (+02:00) + Show Spoiler [Full Schedule] +
(Event is finished) Event Time: 23:00 KST
16:00 CEST
10:00 EDT
07:00 PDT
16:00 CEST
MLG Columbus 2011 Day 3
+ Show Spoiler [Full Schedule] +
(Event is finished) Event Time: 23:00 KST
16:00 CEST
10:00 EDT
07:00 PDT
16:00 CEST
I don't understand anything in those time zones oO. I just know MLG was during my sleep time but that may have something to do with my exams coming up and me needing a proper sleep schedule :D. I did watch a bit of sunday though as that was earlier.
How are stream views calculated? I know I refreshed or switched stream a few hundred times, lol. It would be cool to know how many individual users accessed the stream over the weekend. I bet it's close to half a million...
On June 14 2011 00:57 theBOOCH wrote: How are stream views calculated? I know I refreshed or switched stream a few hundred times, lol. It would be cool to know how many individual users accessed the stream over the weekend. I bet it's close to half a million...
already been stated, 450k unique viewers. not a bad guess
Since we can all relate to moment captures and how those go. The amount of viewers currently watching, I feel that would give the best numbers if you want to compare it. However MLG hasn't ever really made the stream numbers public if I recall, so this is already cool and maybe for those that actually know how it works, like if this is a standard way to look at it in the TV world for example then I guess that's all right.
With the numbers being so impressive you almost fail to notice the announcement that streamworks, who I feel has done an excellent job, has been taken on not only for the remainder of this season, but also for the whole season after that. I'm actually most excited about that because I feel that you can create a lot better quality content when you give this job away to a dedicated service. Also with the theme of Columbus being stability and getting that baseline up. I wouldn't be surprised to see some cool things get introduced or experimented with in the future, after a comfort zone has been reached, regarding the stream and what is being shown on it. That is what I'm most excited about.
450k unique viewers is crazy high, gratz MLG! Like other people have already said, would be interested in seeing how much the sc2 streams were watched.
Very few people care about the NFL draft. That was only one event going on at the same time and that's the total viewership, not unique hits so those numbers are fairly skewed. It's still a great feat considering they more than doubled their previous numbers.
Awesome! Since MLG seems to be doing so great I suppose I have to buy ATLEAST one time just to support their efforts to help eSports and different games. Waiting for Anaheim<3
If MLG could ever pull that stick out of capcoms butts, and lock up SF4. They would get near 1 million unique hits I bet. 450k is alot and I think some people are underestimating how big it is. Look at some "real" sports and what they get. Something like MLS(Major league soccer) on ESPN2 they avg a bit over 250k for games.
On June 14 2011 00:57 theBOOCH wrote: How are stream views calculated? I know I refreshed or switched stream a few hundred times, lol. It would be cool to know how many individual users accessed the stream over the weekend. I bet it's close to half a million...
already been stated, 450k unique viewers. not a bad guess
On June 14 2011 00:45 ThaZenith wrote: Ah, why didn't he break down stream views by titles? Knowing how many SC2 viewers there were was what I was most interested in, lol.
While it would be interesting, I think its safe to say SC2 got the most hits as a lot of people at dallas and columbus said the viewer area for Black Ops is mostly empty. I could see the problem with releasing specific stream #s to the entitlement the community would feel if they accounted for 60% of the viewers, but still only got 33% of the prize money.
[ They put more money total in the other games. The price pool goes deeper in Halo and CoD.
Remember that the money from the other 2 games has to be spilt between 4 (sometimes 5) people. I the other games there is also money for the 1st and second placed teams (I think?) whereas the top 8 SC2 players get money. I also think that Halo actually brings in MLG the most money since it is the only big Halo competition in the world and lots of teams attend and play large amounts of money to enter. The Halo side of things is also directly sponsored and the teams get their sponsorships through MLG whereas SC2 teams are completely independant of MLG. Having said that, with these kind of stream figures I guess this might now be a bit different, but i still highly doubt we'll see any increase in the prize pool at least until the 2012 season.
On June 14 2011 01:24 MLGrben wrote: While a lot of you think that the 22 million stream number doesn't matter, that is the standard that most big companies are reporting and care about.
Share this news, tell your friends. Maybe some ad exec will see it and decide "hey, I need to get into competitive gaming and SC2 ASAP"
This is kind of scary, actually. If those buying ads are really stupid enough to care about the 22 million stream views, rather than the 450k unique views or the 2 million hours viewed, then it means MLG actually makes more money when its streams constantly cut out and need refreshing than they do when they're stable. (Obviously this isn't completely true - they don't want it to be too frustrating to watch, or people stop coming back for future events - but it definitely decreases their incentive to provide a stable stream, even if it doesn't reverse it.)
On June 14 2011 01:37 InToTheWannaB wrote: If MLG could ever pull that stick out of capcoms butts, and lock up SF4. They would get near 1 million unique hits I bet. 450k is alot and I think some people are underestimating how big it is. Look at some "real" sports and what they get. Something like MLS(Major league soccer) on ESPN2 they avg a bit over 250k for games.
22mill, daaauum son. To lazy to read all the replys, but having 2 streams and every single viewer jumping between those streams every 5 minutes does make up this huge number ?
On June 14 2011 01:24 MLGrben wrote: While a lot of you think that the 22 million stream number doesn't matter, that is the standard that most big companies are reporting and care about.
Share this news, tell your friends. Maybe some ad exec will see it and decide "hey, I need to get into competitive gaming and SC2 ASAP"
This is kind of scary, actually. If those buying ads are really stupid enough to care about the 22 million stream views, rather than the 450k unique views or the 2 million hours viewed, then it means MLG actually makes more money when its streams constantly cut out and need refreshing than they do when they're stable. (Obviously this isn't completely true - they don't want it to be too frustrating to watch, or people stop coming back for future events - but it definitely decreases their incentive to provide a stable stream, even if it doesn't reverse it.)
Completely wrong, the only thing i want is a 1000% rock solid and stable stream. If an advertiser buys ads with us and sees the stream is unstable they will never come back.
On June 14 2011 01:24 MLGrben wrote: While a lot of you think that the 22 million stream number doesn't matter, that is the standard that most big companies are reporting and care about.
Share this news, tell your friends. Maybe some ad exec will see it and decide "hey, I need to get into competitive gaming and SC2 ASAP"
This is kind of scary, actually. If those buying ads are really stupid enough to care about the 22 million stream views, rather than the 450k unique views or the 2 million hours viewed, then it means MLG actually makes more money when its streams constantly cut out and need refreshing than they do when they're stable. (Obviously this isn't completely true - they don't want it to be too frustrating to watch, or people stop coming back for future events - but it definitely decreases their incentive to provide a stable stream, even if it doesn't reverse it.)
Completely wrong, the only thing i want is a 1000% rock solid and stable stream. If an advertiser buys ads with us and sees the stream is unstable they will never come back.
That's totally believable to me, but that seems in conflict with them caring primarily about the 22mil number. That number being so high makes the average length of stream view roughly 6 minutes. That doesn't scare them away? All the games being broadcast are much longer than that, so the only way that happens is with lots of refreshing, etc. I mean, maybe they're just dumb. I've learned to never underestimate the explanatory power of stupidity, but....
Tha'ts right sponsors! 450K unique viewers! Give ESPORTS your moneys now. Can't stay its a bad thing. Breaking records and taking names. It can only get us more attention.
On June 14 2011 01:37 InToTheWannaB wrote: If MLG could ever pull that stick out of capcoms butts, and lock up SF4. They would get near 1 million unique hits I bet. 450k is alot and I think some people are underestimating how big it is. Look at some "real" sports and what they get. Something like MLS(Major league soccer) on ESPN2 they avg a bit over 250k for games.
2.2 million hours divided across 450k viewers is an average of 4.9 hours viewing, though. That's roughly 3 soccer games, so I think it's a reasonably fair comparison.
On June 14 2011 02:32 ComaDose wrote: Tha'ts right sponsors! 450K unique viewers! Give ESPORTS your moneys now. Can't stay its a bad thing. Breaking records and taking names. It can only get us more attention.
450,000 across the entire globe.. it's really not that impressive.
On June 14 2011 01:37 InToTheWannaB wrote: If MLG could ever pull that stick out of capcoms butts, and lock up SF4. They would get near 1 million unique hits I bet. 450k is alot and I think some people are underestimating how big it is. Look at some "real" sports and what they get. Something like MLS(Major league soccer) on ESPN2 they avg a bit over 250k for games.
2.2 million hours divided across 450k viewers is an average of 4.9 hours viewing, though. That's roughly 3 soccer games, so I think it's a reasonably fair comparison.
Uhh no. Unless the football matches were on 3 days straight and once in very month that would make an accurate comparison. It being on for such a long period will give the opportunity for some to just "pop-in" because of it's exclusiveness. The average like you said is 4.9 hours making it 4/5 times less than I actually spent watching it all.
I hope this helps in giving MLG the ability to increase the prizepool significantly for players. MLG is too awesome a tournament to have such a small prize pool. I hope they can at least double it. Hopefully thats not too much to ask. Doing this would make it more worthwhile for the best players in the world to travel to each MLG event.
Poll: Do you MLG should allocate resources to increasing its prize pool?
Yes increase it by 100% (15)
41%
No they should allocate resources to other areas. (12)
32%
Yes they should increase it by more than double its current level. (9)
24%
Yes increase it by 25%. (1)
3%
Yes increase it by 50% (0)
0%
Yes increase it by 75% (0)
0%
37 total votes
Your vote: Do you MLG should allocate resources to increasing its prize pool?
(Vote): Yes increase it by 25%. (Vote): Yes increase it by 50% (Vote): Yes increase it by 75% (Vote): Yes increase it by 100% (Vote): Yes they should increase it by more than double its current level. (Vote): No they should allocate resources to other areas.
As someone who still remembers eagerly waiting the results of the first MLG tournaments, congratulations. Congratulations to the Starcraft community as well, you guys are a freaking powerhouse.
On June 14 2011 02:44 jacobmarlow wrote: I hope this helps in giving MLG the ability to increase the prizepool significantly for players. MLG is too awesome a tournament to have such a small prize pool. I hope they can at least double it. Hopefully thats not too much to ask. Doing this would make it more worthwhile for the best players in the world to travel to each MLG event.
Poll: Do you MLG should allocate resources to increasing its prize pool?
Yes increase it by 100% (15)
41%
No they should allocate resources to other areas. (12)
32%
Yes they should increase it by more than double its current level. (9)
24%
Yes increase it by 25%. (1)
3%
Yes increase it by 50% (0)
0%
Yes increase it by 75% (0)
0%
37 total votes
Your vote: Do you MLG should allocate resources to increasing its prize pool?
(Vote): Yes increase it by 25%. (Vote): Yes increase it by 50% (Vote): Yes increase it by 75% (Vote): Yes increase it by 100% (Vote): Yes they should increase it by more than double its current level. (Vote): No they should allocate resources to other areas.
Im confused isnt 100% the same as the double amount?
Seeing as the Stockholm Invitational also had over 450k unique viewers it's not that impressive, though it had the advantage of being covered in several Swedish newspapers. Anyway, it's nice to see esports moving forward.
On June 14 2011 01:20 StarStruck wrote: Very few people care about the NFL draft.
Every person I know who follows football was curious and watched at least part of the first 2 rounds, if not all. I watched the whole first 2 rounds of the draft, and also almost the entirety of MLG. The NFL draft was also on TV, so it's a bit of a disingenuous comparison. Still great to see so many tuned in to watch regardless.
I dont want MLG to be so reliant on koreans: one of its biggest appeal over GSL is that it is truly international.
If every organization work together, blizzard included, I don't think breaking 1 million unique viewers would be too challenging.
Maybe invest a little more into advertising on main stream media?
(I have always thought its somewhat stupid that the esport community is trying so hard to grow and advertise sc2 while blizzard kind of just sit back and net the profits)
On June 13 2011 23:46 aristarchus wrote: There were 22.5 million "stream views" and 2.2 million hours of video consumed... So unless I'm missing something the average stream view lasted for about 6 minutes...
I think a couple million of those views were me refreshing because the stream wouldn't switch back from prerecorded video to live events on its own.
Indeed. Without exaggerating, I, by myself, must have provided at least 100 "stream views" by switching between streams, refreshing when the stream died for me, etc.
On June 14 2011 00:18 djWHEAT wrote: I think there's a solid reason why they don't break out the numbers by titles. There's no doubt in my mind that Halo and CoD would be towered by the enormous numbers of StarCraft 2. It's probably a very proper decision on their part. Let's just hope that the popularity of SC2 can also help with the growth of other games. The more #'s the better regardless of which game viewers are flocking to!
Wouldn't revealing the individual numbers encourage fans of other games to tune in more often to help their game's numbers go up? Or even make them want to spread the word more to friends? I guess it's debateable whether encouraging that kind of rivalry is good in the long run, but it might be. Also it could help StarCraft fans have a lame sense of accomplishment if the next MLG's SC2 stream has bigger numbers than this one. Might be good for future comparison.
You cannot help but feel a sense of accomplishment when you see those numbers and then being put in perspective with regards with the NFL.com draft numbers.
Every one of us who watched the streams and felt elated or down when our favorite players won or lost helped with the success of the event.
Great thanks to the MLG people for putting together such a great tournament and much luck ahead (although it does not look like they need it). If you organize it we will come.
On June 14 2011 03:29 Mithriel wrote: Wonder how many people watched sc2 and how many the other games. I don't think halo attracts a lot of viewers, but that's just my guess.
Well MLG has been around for over 6 years now. SC2 has only been around for a fraction of that. So id say they did alright with halo as the main game. Of course they are doing better than ever now, but do not dismiss console games as nothing.
On June 14 2011 02:50 Chenz wrote: Seeing as the Stockholm Invitational also had over 450k unique viewers it's not that impressive, though it had the advantage of being covered in several Swedish newspapers. Anyway, it's nice to see esports moving forward.
What's the source for the DH numbers? Did they report how many stream hours were consumed? I'd be curious to know what the average amount of time each viewer spent watching the stream was.
If MLG's is really in the neighborhood of 4.9 hours per unique, I imagine that'd be a hell of a selling point for potential advertisers.
That's amazing ! I would like to know how many viewers were only for the starcraft 2 stream Anyways, breaking limite while keeping a great stream, it's a really good improvment compared to the last MLG
Yah I had to refresh alot. At first when I saw that 22.5 Million I was like :OO but then 450k unique which kinda loses its "omgah" factor Still freaking sweet though
And wuut 1.4 million unique for DreamHack?.. I doubt that very much :/ The stream numbers were only constant 60k. Although DreamHack is one of the largest tournaments in the world so maybe I guess but unlikely :/
On June 14 2011 04:44 hifriend wrote: Time to up the prize pool tbh. -_- 5k is pretty laughable, these are after all very big events even when it isn't the national championship.
5 k isn't much but considering its a 3 day tournament,I don't really think the pool money will go much higher.Personally i would like to see the amount doubled as well.
On June 14 2011 00:08 MLG_Lee wrote: 22.5M streams served... over 450K unique stream viewers.
We don't break out streams by titles.
Excellent numbers! You went on par with DreamHack Stockholm Invitattional! Last Winter we had 1.4 million unique viewers,..
For Summer? *shudderswithdelight*
edit: forgot that million in 1.4....
1.4 million unique?I don't think that's accurate....
Yup, correct. Buy me a beer and I'll show you the stats....
Ill send you some e-sports money.Now gimme a link for that stat.
"DreamHack Winter 2010 was a true milestone for our development as an eSports event. The finals at DreamArena Extreme attracted thousands and 1,4 million people from 92 countries followed the action online via livestream. This confirms DreamHacks position as one of the biggest and most prestigious eSports events in the world. 2011 we will launch even bigger tournaments and get more international attention to the event and Jönköping."
On June 14 2011 04:44 hifriend wrote: Time to up the prize pool tbh. -_- 5k is pretty laughable, these are after all very big events even when it isn't the national championship.
5 k isn't much but considering its a 3 day tournament,I don't really think the pool money will go much higher.Personally i would like to see the amount doubled as well.
They already said they plan on doubling it for next season.
Add two stable starcraft 2 streams with out favorite casters and break records. We starcraft players love our streams. <3 GJ MLG, loved watching it all weekend.
On June 14 2011 02:50 Chenz wrote: Seeing as the Stockholm Invitational also had over 450k unique viewers it's not that impressive, though it had the advantage of being covered in several Swedish newspapers. Anyway, it's nice to see esports moving forward.
What's the source for the DH numbers? Did they report how many stream hours were consumed? I'd be curious to know what the average amount of time each viewer spent watching the stream was.
If MLG's is really in the neighborhood of 4.9 hours per unique, I imagine that'd be a hell of a selling point for potential advertisers.
The numbers are from their Stockholm Invitational postpromo ()
On June 14 2011 04:44 ProxyKnoxy wrote: And wuut 1.4 million unique for DreamHack?.. I doubt that very much :/ The stream numbers were only constant 60k. Although DreamHack is one of the largest tournaments in the world so maybe I guess but unlikely :/
You're thinking of Stockholm Invitational, not Dreamhack Winter. Also, the Invitational had 2 different streams.
On June 14 2011 00:29 anomaly0 wrote: What is up with the NFL comparison? It's a draft not a game.
Still impressive just not sure why that's even mentioned.
The NFL draft gets 20-30 million viewers on television alone, it's a huge sporting event. It actually gets better ratings than the NHL and NBA finals combined, and neither is willing to attempt to compete with it during those two days.
I'm actually curious what the TSL numbers looked like. It also had ~60k+ max viewers on the stream as far as I saw.
Actually an important part of the 22.5 million views is also, every time you refreshed the stream a new 30 sec ad would play. So without taking into account AdBlock, that's 22.5 million ad views or a combined 187,500 hours of ads viewed!
Yeah the 22.5 million obviously wasn't going to be the unique viewer count :p That would mean E-sports has already become completely mainstream. Still very, very impressive with the 450k. Although in fact, it's probably a bad thing the streams served number is that much higher than the unique viewer count. Lots of refreshing due to problems :p
On June 14 2011 19:59 Kralle333 wrote: The most crazy part of the story is that there was viewers from 164 countries. Which 30 countries didnt watch mlg? :D
On June 14 2011 00:18 djWHEAT wrote: I think there's a solid reason why they don't break out the numbers by titles. There's no doubt in my mind that Halo and CoD would be towered by the enormous numbers of StarCraft 2. It's probably a very proper decision on their part. Let's just hope that the popularity of SC2 can also help with the growth of other games. The more #'s the better regardless of which game viewers are flocking to!
Wouldn't revealing the individual numbers encourage fans of other games to tune in more often to help their game's numbers go up? Or even make them want to spread the word more to friends? I guess it's debateable whether encouraging that kind of rivalry is good in the long run, but it might be. Also it could help StarCraft fans have a lame sense of accomplishment if the next MLG's SC2 stream has bigger numbers than this one. Might be good for future comparison.
It would probably encourage them a tiny but. But they should already be promoting it and getting their friends to tune in. Whenever a big event is on, I open my IM and spam a quick X tourney, watch it because of Y and the link to it. But to the point, it would just give people ammunition to compare the streams and games and start sheeping around. So many people already seeing the numbers, whatever it means it's probably good, and then saying we want more prizemoney! wtf is that about. The prizemoney will come, it's better allow them to invest like they are doing currently, so it will have grown a nice following which will allow them to do things like that in the future. As for wheat's qoute I'm right behind that. We shouldn't look down on these games, or treat them poorly, or compare. Support them like you would support SC2. It can only strengthen ESPORTS as the games build upon eachother in a way. There are probably quite a few outdoor sports/team sports that are relatively new. I think part of the reason they can get established and grow comfortably is because they are similar to many of the ones that already exist and are popular. I can see that being the same with games.
On June 14 2011 00:29 anomaly0 wrote: What is up with the NFL comparison? It's a draft not a game.
Still impressive just not sure why that's even mentioned.
The NFL draft gets 20-30 million viewers on television alone, it's a huge sporting event. It actually gets better ratings than the NHL and NBA finals combined, and neither is willing to attempt to compete with it during those two days.
Yeah but thats the problem, 30 million people watch it on national TV. Its stream is practically irrelevant. It's just an odd disingenuous comparison on many levels. I guess beating anything with the letters NFL in it just sounds good
On June 15 2011 01:15 Marke wrote: Its not really a "league" either. its more of an tourament where you get to be in the next tournament if you place high. Its a diffrence.
yea..... like the NBA or NFL. Place as high as you can, So you can get a good playoff spot for a better chance at the finals.
NEW YORK—June 13, 2011—Major League Gaming (MLG), the world's largest professional video game league and largest provider of cross platform online videogame competition, shattered previous MLG records delivering more than 22.5 million stream views of the Columbus Pro Circuit weekend of competition, nearly double the reported 11.4 million NFL.com video streams consumed during the weekend of the 2011 NFL Draft. Viewers from 164 countries watched four live streams during the three-day, double elimination tournament online at www.majorleaguegaming.com for a total of more than 2.2 million hours of video consumed. Rebroadcasts of all Columbus Pro Circuit matches are available on MLG.tv.
Yeah becuase everyone had to refresh 100 times a hour, but still impressive as hell, good to see E-Sports crushing everything else
On June 15 2011 01:15 Marke wrote: Its not really a "league" either. its more of an tourament where you get to be in the next tournament if you place high. Its a diffrence.
On June 14 2011 02:44 jacobmarlow wrote: I hope this helps in giving MLG the ability to increase the prizepool significantly for players. MLG is too awesome a tournament to have such a small prize pool. I hope they can at least double it. Hopefully thats not too much to ask. Doing this would make it more worthwhile for the best players in the world to travel to each MLG event.
Poll: Do you MLG should allocate resources to increasing its prize pool?
Yes increase it by 100% (15)
41%
No they should allocate resources to other areas. (12)
32%
Yes they should increase it by more than double its current level. (9)
24%
Yes increase it by 25%. (1)
3%
Yes increase it by 50% (0)
0%
Yes increase it by 75% (0)
0%
37 total votes
Your vote: Do you MLG should allocate resources to increasing its prize pool?
(Vote): Yes increase it by 25%. (Vote): Yes increase it by 50% (Vote): Yes increase it by 75% (Vote): Yes increase it by 100% (Vote): Yes they should increase it by more than double its current level. (Vote): No they should allocate resources to other areas.
Im confused isnt 100% the same as the double amount?
On June 14 2011 19:59 Kralle333 wrote: The most crazy part of the story is that there was viewers from 164 countries. Which 30 countries didnt watch mlg? :D
EPT
No that's probably not unique viewers, even with the Halo/CoD fanbase I don't think we could get 22 mil.
![[image loading]](http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/2Beastly4U/SneakyBeaver.jpg)
