Call of Duty esports have undergone quite the overhaul in the past year with the CoD League taking on a geolocated franchise model, much like the Overwatch League. In addition, the league, previously known as the Call of Duty World League, had its broadcasts move from Twitch to YouTube, making it so that the fresh new league had a new home as well.
With three weeks of competition in the books, it appears as though the CDL isn’t drawing quite as many viewers as the CWL did in 2019, when events had more alternative viewing experiences. On Twitch, broadcasts from the “Call of Duty Bravo” and “Call of Duty Charlie” channels added supplemental coverage of events, as well as alternate language broadcasts from Dexerto.
The league’s first three events in Minnesota, London, and Atlanta combined to have stronger average viewership and hours watched than the first major events last season in Las Vegas, Fort Worth, and London on the main broadcast. However, when alternate broadcasts were included, viewership was down.
- Each weekend of CDL action this season has eclipsed the 1M hours watched mark on YouTube, despite having few viewing options compared to last year.
- While CWL Las Vegas in December of 2018 had by far the best viewership of any of the events this year, the 2020 season has had more consistent viewership with averages.
- The second week of this season in London had a slightly lower average viewership than week one in Minnesota. However, Atlanta Faze’s success in their home city attracted higher viewership averages than the opening weekend, showing improvement for the league as the season progresses.
