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For the past few weeks I've been working on a site that tracks viewer numbers for starcraft 2 Twitch streams and turns them into graphs, rankings, et cetera. I got it more or less finished just in time for the WCS Season 2 finals weekend, and since there's been some discussion about how many viewers these events would get I though that's be a nice opportunity to announce the site and give an example of the kind of things it does at the same time ^^
Furthermore the site also tracks player streams (example) and teams (example) and gives a comprehensive overview of how stream viewership is doing in comparison to earlier weeks and such, so hopefully it can be useful for individual streamers as well.
Anyway! The full overview for the entire weekend can be found at http://fuzic.nl/sets/wcs-season-2-grand-finals/. Some observations:
- The EU stream had the most viewers by far, topping out at 78k during the grand final but reaching 65k earlier during the
 duckdeok vs Grubby game.
- While the EU stream viewership climbed relatively slowly to reach strong numbers during the last few games of the day, the NA stream was more consistent, quickly reaching a relatively high level and staying at that for the remainder of the day.
- As expected, overall averages were lower than for previous season's WCS finals, which can probably be attributed to The International 3's finals being on at the same time. Averages for the NA and streams were only slightly lower than for previous season's finals though, in spite of competition from The International 3.
- EU had it worse with 45k average on day 2 compared to 80k for season 1's final day. This could perhaps be attributed to the fact that this season, the final two were Korean, while in Season 1 fan favourite Stephano fought for the title.
- Of course, the Korean championship is broadcast on other platforms than Twitch and as such it is impossible to obtain accurate viewer numbers for it.
On August 13 2013 05:55 revel8 wrote:Number breakdown WCS EU Season 1 Day 1 average 55.0k peak unknown WCS EU Season 1 Day 2 average 80.5k peak 128kWCS EU Season 2 Day 1 average 45.1k peak 65.2k WCS EU Season 2 Day 2 average 49.9k peak 78.0k WCS AM Season 1 Day 1 average 35.4k peak unknown WCS AM Season 1 Day 2 average 44.0k peak 65kWCS AM Season 2 Day 1 average 35.5k peak 46.7k WCS AM Season 2 Day 2 average 43.3k peak 51.7k
I hope these numbers are of use to some of you and contribute to having better discussions about these things. Feel free to let me know if you have any feedback on the site or would like to see some specific graphs or overviews!
Some graphs (times in CEST, click the graphs for expanded info and timezone selector):
WCS EU Finals Day 1
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9y4iTQQ.png)
WCS EU Finals Day 2 (Grand Finals)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/M8VObOt.png)
WCS NA Finals Day 1
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RivDlga.png)
WCS NA Finals Day 2 (Grand Finals)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1wsK3ph.png)
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China6331 Posts
Pretty decent numbers considering TI3 was going on.
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Nice, thanks for making the graphs. I'd like to point out that the LR, after Grubby lost, was filled with people predicting a 15k dip in view numbers. I'm glad to see that such a dip happens after most every series during the down-time, and it went up by nearly 15k afterwards for the finals.
This might be a lesson for tournament organizers. Down-time, as it is handled now, leads to reduced viewer numbers. If you'd retain more of the viewers by reducing down-time, the peaks might be higher.
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Whats the highest viewership a live starcraft game has ever obtained?
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eu finals last season just had "better" players or lets just say more diverse players, that and the dota thing combined probably explain some of the viewer numbers for eu. surprisingly low numbers for wcs am. i think they did a great job and besides the nasl sound guy with some issues it was a great event and the players in the top8 were pretty good.
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What about the WCS Korea stream? I'd be interested in seeing how those numbers compare to these?
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Canada16217 Posts
On August 12 2013 22:55 KaiserKieran wrote:
Whats the highest viewership a live starcraft game has ever obtained?
maybe boxer vs idra at 2011 mlg but i'm pretty sure it was this:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=161872
On August 12 2013 23:03 Random_0 wrote:
What about the WCS Korea stream? I'd be interested in seeing how those numbers compare to these?
It's kinda hard to tell how many they actually got considering gom numbers are hidden. I'm sure they are lower without the gom numbers, well maybe with the korean stream they are higher.
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On August 12 2013 22:55 KaiserKieran wrote:
Whats the highest viewership a live starcraft game has ever obtained?
I think probably finals stage of first HoTS mlg (~150k). Maybe look back at the great late 2011 early 2012 period? Didn't pay too much attention back then tho. And as always, hard to compare with factual viewership of kr events. Osl, GSL and PL finals most prolly beat those numbers.
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Another example of Foreigners > Highest level of play in terms of viewership.
I think if SC2 wants to genereate as much viewers as possible they have to make EU foreigner exclusive. Maybe, because Korean WCS is way harder they could just cut WCS NA (besides 1 or 2 players the NA scene is just loughable) and put this money to korea to balance the higher skill requirments.
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Decent numbers considering the competition. Production and games during all three events were great so I wouldn't be surprised if we see viewer count trending up for future events. Very excited about the future.
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On August 12 2013 22:55 KaiserKieran wrote:
Whats the highest viewership a live starcraft game has ever obtained?
I think we reached 400k concurrents at a Dreamhack once...
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On August 12 2013 23:14 iKill wrote:Show nested quote +On August 12 2013 22:55 KaiserKieran wrote:
Whats the highest viewership a live starcraft game has ever obtained? I think we reached 400k concurrents at a Dreamhack once...
Um no
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the people in eu scene seem to enjoy PvP~
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On August 12 2013 23:05 FakePseudo wrote:Show nested quote +On August 12 2013 22:55 KaiserKieran wrote:
Whats the highest viewership a live starcraft game has ever obtained? I think probably finals stage of first HoTS mlg (~150k). Maybe look back at the great late 2011 early 2012 period? Didn't pay too much attention back then tho. And as always, hard to compare with factual viewership of kr events. Osl, GSL and PL finals most prolly beat those numbers.
I remember the HDH Beta Invitationals (Wings of Liberty Beta, grand finals between White-Ra and Idra) had around 180k on the stream.
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Wcs eu finals 2012: 125k
Wcs eu finals 2013 season 1: 80k
Wcs eu finals 2013 season 2: 78k
Dropping? ... -_-
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the people in eu scene seem to enjoy PvP~
Or you can just leave the stream open to support the game you love regardless of whether you enjoy the games or not, even if you're watching TI3 on your eventual other screen 
Also it's pointless to compare nowadays numbers to beta/early sc2 events'. It's one thing to have a high peak because the game is new, but now that most people found the game too hard for them and are not playing it, it's normal to have them not watching anymore either. Maybe one day sc2 will stop being compared to DotA likes, it's not the same player base, not the same public.
Having a 80K peak on TI3's week end is really not bad. It would maybe increase if people actually watched the games instead of bitching about balance and viewership numbers.
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On August 12 2013 23:24 winthrop wrote:
the people in eu scene seem to enjoy PvP~
I personally think PvP is the best mirror
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Funny thing is, for all the hate we (me included!) dropped at Blizzard for cross-scheduling with TI3, in the end it might have been good for WCS - here's why:
People often miss SC2 events, because they are busy with their life. Even if it's an important event, they may say "gonna have to VOD it later". However, having TI3 meant a lot more potential viewers would make sure to be free to watch on that day, which actually creates better opportunity for watching WCS.
Should have thought about that earlier. Anyway, grats WCS, those are excellent numbers, all factors considered.
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Numbers dropping for everyone across the board.
Not surprising given Blizzard's support of their own leagues. Look at Valve and Riot dumping lots of money into their leagues, anyone see Blizzard doing the same? Nope.
Either a change is coming, or SC2 is going, no other options for eSports companies at this point when such big name games pull much much larger numbers and money.
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EPT
