The WePlay AniMajor has been entered into the top 5 Hall of Fame after it attracted a massive viewership on its final day. We break down the numbers, from most popular team to most watched series.
The WePlay AniMajor just concluded and social media is on fire with compliments and praise for what was a magnificent event. WePlay kept their epic stage under wraps until the playoffs, with attendees given directions not to make any social media posts ahead of its grand reveal. Aside from a breath-taking stage, the WePlay AniMajor was also blessed with great Dota 2 matches, which attracted immense viewership. Even the Wild Card stage matches brought in over 100,000 viewers on the English Twitch.
With great matches, an awesome stage and plenty of quirky anime-themed content, it comes as no surprise to Dota 2 fans that it had a lot of viewers. What may surprise them however, is to find that the AniMajor's peak viewership
Highest peak viewers since Kiev Major outside of TI
According to comprehensive data company Esports Charts, the WePlay AniMajor's peak viewership of 650K (644,964 to be precise) is the highest Dota 2 has seen since the PGL Kiev Major in 2017.
Prior to the AniMajor, tournament organiser PGL held all top 3 slots for peak viewers, with the Singapore Major in March of this year, also a huge success. The Singapore Major peaked at 605K viewers, and was the only other DPC Major on the 2020-2021 DPC Pro Circuit ahead of TI10.
Evil Geniuses vs T1 was the most popular series
ESCharts also shared the data of the highest peak viewer matches from the WePlay Animajor (DotaTV, Facebook, Steam.tv, Twitch and YouTube) . Evil Geniuses featured in 3 of the top 5 matches, with their series against T1 in the lower-bracket final the most popular. Perhaps because of Iceiceice's Sand King?
Highest peak viewership matches:
644,964 peak viewers - Evil Geniuses vs T1 (LB Final)
581,398 peak viewers - Evil Geniuses vs TNC
497,553 peak viewers - PSG.LGD vs Nigma
461,287 peak viewers - Virtus Pro vs Nigma
445,808 peak viewers - Evil Geniuses vs PSG.LGD (Grand Finals)
In terms of which teams attracted the highest average viewership, Virtus Pro finished 1st with 318K, followed by Alliance with 309K and T1 with 294K. For hours watched Evil Geniuses won by a mile. According to ESCharts, Dota 2 fans watched 10.7 million hours of Evil Geniuses matches during the AniMajor, more than double the 2nd most popular T1 (4.3 million).
5th highest peak viewers numbers of all time
What is even more impressive, is that the WePlay AniMajor remains in the top 5 even when Valve's The International is factored into the equation. The viewership of TI has continued to grow over the last 3 events, with TI9 in 2019 reaching a peak of 1.9 million.
WePlay viewership a sign of their growing success in the Dota 2 space
WePlay's growing reputation as a major third-party tournament organiser in Dota 2 has grown year-by-year. In 2019 they took a significant leap and hosted a series of high production events focused around EU and CIS, such as the Winter and Valentine Madness. In January 2020 they then hosted the Bukovel Minor, and were the quickest tournament organiser to react to the pandemic, hosting the WePlay Pushka League and later the OMEGA League.
The AniMajor was the second of the two Majors for the 2020-2021 DPC season, and a glorious success. Dota 2 fans worldwide will hope WePlay will continue to be involved in the professional scene.