CS:GO ESL Pro League Viewer Numbers Drop
Last weekend marked the conclusion of another season of the CS:GO ESL Pro League. However, this season saw a significant decrease in viewer numbers compared to previous finals.
The EPL Season Seven Finals was the first offline ESL event to be broadcasted on Facebook. Viewers could watch the main English Facebook streams or various Twitch streams in other languages like Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Despite this, overall viewership reached near-record lows.
Related: Astralis triumph over Liquid to win the EPL Season 7 Finals
According to Esports Charts, the Season Seven Finals had the lowest streaming numbers of the past three seasons. The main English Facebook stream reached a peak of around 24,000 viewers, compared to past streams reaching 218,000 (Season Four), 113,000 (Season Five), and 80,000 (Season Six). Season Four was the last Pro League Finals English stream on Twitch, with Seasons Five and Six exclusively on YouTube.
In terms of overall peak viewers, Season Seven only reached around 122,000, while Season Four had 317,000, Season Five had 364,000, and Season Six had 625,000. The Russian Twitch stream had higher numbers than the English Facebook stream, with around 84,000 peak viewers compared to 23,000 on Facebook. On average, the English Facebook stream barely reached 10,000 viewers, while the Russian Twitch stream had double that.
These numbers show a correlation between ESL’s move away from Twitch and the decline in viewership for CS:GO events. Surprisingly, fans opted to watch the event in Russian on Twitch, even though it’s a language that most people don’t understand, rather than watching the only English stream on Facebook.
Contrary to ESL’s statement in their Facebook deal announcement, the platform has been less than ideal for the average viewer. Reddit threads on /r/GlobalOffensive complained about the viewer numbers, the stream quality, and the demand for an embedded English stream outside of Facebook. Some even resorted to satire and boycotting sponsor products. The best option for viewers seemed to be watching the embedded English Facebook stream on HLTV.
CS:GO, ESL Pro League, viewer numbers, Facebook platform, Twitch streams, Russian Twitch streamers, English Facebook stream, viewership decline, ESL, Reddit threads, HLTV.