How about that game last night, huh? The Brazilian champions SK Gaming, formerly known as Luminosity Gaming made quick work of Team Liquid last night winning two straight games. While we admit it wasn’t the best grand final we’ve ever seen, it definitely wasn’t bad enough to warrant the viewership numbers dropping off by almost half compared to the last major.
The most recent event (ESL One Cologne) managed to obtain a peak number of 850,000 viewers, down from the 1.6 million viewers during the last major, MLG Columbus. There are many factors as to why this drop-off occurred, though the exact reason for a drop-off this large remains unknown.
ESL One Cologne’s grand finals took place during the weekend of sports: The Wimbledon finals, British F1 Grand Prix, Tour De France and of course the disappointing Euro 2016 Final. It wouldn’t be surprising to find that a lot of the same viewers that watch Counter Strike may be interested in at least one of these other sporting events.
One of the major reasons people may not have been tuning in is because of where the tournament was hosted. MLG Columbus took place in America which gave it a huge advantage in terms of views as Americans didn’t have to stay up (or get up early) to watch the matches. Of course, there’s always the most obvious answer to consider is Overwatch. Overwatch may have stolen a decent chunk of the Counter Strike player-base, and it seems like these players have no intention of coming back any time soon.
Let us know what you think is the cause of the Counter Strike drop-off is the comment section below.
