For those who didn't read the last thread, a few words about my methodology: I'm running a script that regularly (every 15 minutes) grabs various information about every stream that is available from teamliquid.net, put the data in a database and turn it into the fancy table that you see below. Since the last time I've made various updates to my script. For one, I don't use www.teamliquid.net as my main source of data gathering anymore, since I found out that the data I want is available in XML form. That kinda made things a whole lot easier. The XML version also has a lot more data (like race, language, featured status, etc.) that I now use for my table as well. Another update I implemented makes sure that only Starcraft 2 related streams are taken into account when creating the table. I kinda had to do that because half of the pro gamers have been playing (and streaming) nothing but Diablo 3 recently. Another minor adjustment is that a streamer now has to stream at least 2.5 hours in a month before being included in the list.
So, without further ado, here it is!
Actually, one last thing: I compare the below table to the results from April 2012 for consistency's sake, which is not the same as the table I presented in my last thread, as that one contained results from a few days in May as well. You can see the table I used for comparison here, there's only minor differences compared to the table in the previous thread. Also note that these numbers are for May 2012 only, so don't complain that Stephano once had a higher peak viewership. Yeah, he did, but not last month.
EDIT: I guess I should also mention that this list only contains players, and not casters like Day9 or group/event streams, in case that isn't obvious.
(Full HTML version here! Includes "Featured" column which took too much space to be included here.)
Edit: Some people demanded a ranking sorted by average viewers*streaming hours, so I made one. You can find it here.
So there we go. Stephano is the new #1! Gratz! I can't wait for the inevitable Stephano vs. Idra debate to come up again. As you can see from the numbers, though, they are still pretty damn close and far more popular than any other streamer, so I wouldn't say that that result is saying much at all. They're both pretty darn popular streamers, just like they were last month. Let's leave it at that.
What is potentially saying a lot, though, are the viewer diffs. Numbers are down across the board, at times quite massively. Nearly everyone in the top 10 lost about 1000 viewers in the last month. I honestly have no idea why this is the case, and whether this is an indication of a trend or not. I sure hope it isn't, but we'll see whether the trend continues next month, I suppose.
Another thing that surprised me is the number of new streamers in the list. There's about 20 new names here, and the last 20 spots are almost completely filled with new faces. Why's that? Sure, some of the streamers simply lost too many viewers, but nearly half of the streamers who got kicked out of the top 50 list got kicked out because they did not stream at all last month. TaeJa last streamed on April 25, Alicia on April 24, Jjakji on April 17, and so on. It seems that streaming, for the most part, is pretty short lived and not a regular thing for some pros.
Some other random observations:
- Race count: 18 Zerg, 18 Protoss, 13 Terran, 1 Random.
- I wasn't sure if I should include Apollo or not, since he's a caster, not a player. I eventually decided for it, since he's been doing nothing but playing ladder games on his stream so far. If he starts casting games, though, he's out again, as there's no reliable way for me to differentiate the two from the data I gather.
- It may sound rather weird, but I'm quite sure Destiny actually benefited greatly (for the purpose of this list!) from being delisted from Teamliquid. Nearly everyone lost quite some viewers in the last month, and I doubt Destiny was an exception there. But he got delisted, so the last data I have from him is from May 1 (so he barely got into this month's list in the first place). That way, he's not affected by the general downwards trend. I'm curious to see his numbers once he's listed again on TL.
- On May 01 2012 07:28 Nerchio wrote:(From the previous thread) Congrats, Nerchio, you're on the list! How about a top 35 spot as a goal for this month?
I want to be on the list! Guess i should be streaming more :D - There's 4 streamers on the list that do not have featured status on TL: Hui has, as far as I know, a fanbase outside of teamliuqid.net, explaining his success. I don't know about Turuk, Pomi or sLivko, though. So congratz to them for making it into the list!
- Poor Team Liquid. All of their players suffered heavy losses in their ranking this month. EG, on the other hand, is doing pretty well, all things considered.
- Congrats to ForGG for being the only teamless player in the list. I hope he finds an awesome team soon!
(HTML here)
So, hope y'all enjoyed. Until next month!