Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
International 2013 Dota 2 Championships Break Prize And Twitch Viewership Records
This past weekend marked an enormous milestone for eSports, with two records smashed. The International 2013 Dota 2 Championships were held over five days, with Alliance coming away with the $1.4 million top prize.
During the event, $2.8 million in prizes were awarded. The $1.6 million pool was enhanced by player purchases of a $10 Compendium. The Compendium, a living event program that was updated throughout the weekend, was used to bolster the pot, with $2.50 of each purchase going to the prize pool.
This Sunday on Twitch, competitive gaming events including International 2013 and the Starcraft World Championship Series welcomed over 4.5 million unique viewers who watched over 550 million minutes of programming. The average viewer stayed for two hours (which means there are some people that were glued to their computers and mobile devices all day).
By comparison, nationally televised regular season NFL games bring in an average of 16.6 million viewers (via AdWeek).
Our Take
The biggest weekend in eSports brought in 25 percent of the viewership of a regular season NFL game. Football has national awareness, strong team loyalties based on geography, and an immense marketing budget that makes it such that even non-fans know when a game is happening.
With just a small fraction of those resources, competitive gaming rallied a huge audience. eSports might not have the front of mind recognition that the NFL does every fall, but if growth continues, it soon may. 25 percent might not seem like a lot, but when you consider the huge difference in outreach, eSports fans have a lot to crow about.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
