The London weekend of the Call of Duty League enjoyed a little bit of an uptick in viewership as the weekend progressed and crescendoed with 111K viewers during the finals match between the Dallas Empire and Chicago Huntsmen. The peak viewership showed a growth of just under 9K more viewers than the opening weekend, a good sign of the appeal and possible growth of the league as the season moves forward.
Amidst backlash of the original schedule, the Call of Duty League worked out a way to fix the format of the league and bring the league back to more of its roots with a tournament-style format to be played in front of teams’ homecrowds. Some fans and players didn’t feel that the regular season matches format (like the Overwatch League) would work for the Call of Duty League as the heart of the long-running esport is the tournament format.
The willingness of the Call of Duty League to change the format so close to the beginning of the season showed goodwill to its fanbase and has already started paying off with the increase in viewership.
It’s still obvious the Chicago Huntsmen have the widest appeal of any team as they are essentially made up of legends from OpTic Gaming, the most popular and beloved organization in Call of Duty history. All four of their matches placed in the top five in terms of viewer numbers throughout the weekend.
The tournament-style format showed why it is a good move for the league. The matches throughout the weekend helped pick up steam in terms of viewership and by the finals, the viewership was at a weekend (and season) high. The journey of teams throughout the weekend help add to the stakes of it all and broaden the appeal of the matches. If the weekends continue to see an uptick in viewers, the Call of Duty League is in a healthy position.
