The final two regional leagues serving as qualifiers for The International 2024 have concluded, with the Southeast Asia qualifier peaking at nearly 168K viewers, a notable increase from last year. In contrast, the Western Europe qualifier continued to experience a significant decline in viewership compared to previous years, with the popularity gap between Western Europe and its Eastern and Southeast Asian counterparts narrowing annually.
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Despite Western Europe being a major market for Dota 2, it continues to lose viewers each year. The recent closed qualifiers for The International 2024 further highlighted this trend. The tournament only managed 181.1K peak viewers during the Upper Bracket Quarterfinals between OG and Nigma Galaxy on Day 1, which is a 19.5% drop from the previous year. This follows a 58.2% decline from 2022, indicating a persistent downward trend.
Although neither OG nor Nigma Galaxy made it to the final three rounds, they remained the two most popular teams in terms of audience engagement. The Western Europe Closed Qualifier for The International 2024 accumulated 4.6M hours watched and averaged 85.5K viewers over 54 hours of airtime. However, total hours watched decreased by 17.1% compared to 2023.
English and Russian language streams continued to dominate viewership, with community casters like gorgc and just_ns playing key roles. Additionally, NAVI Junior's participation meant that the Ukrainian channel dota2_maincast was among the most watched as the team advanced to the Lower Bracket Semifinal.
Other notable teams in the tournament included Team Secret and PSG Quest, but it was Entity and Tundra Esports who qualified for the season-defining finale, scheduled to take place at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen in September.
The Southeast Asia Closed Qualifier for The International 2024, though not the most glamorous, has gained significant traction. It saw a 15.8% increase in peak viewership from 2023, with 2.2M hours watched and an average of 47.3K viewers. The slight reduction in watch time was due to a shorter airtime of 47 hours. The return of the highly popular Talon Esports, which won the qualifier and secured a spot at The International 2024 alongside Aurora, contributed to its growing popularity.
It's worth noting that the event continued without another major team, T1, which disbanded at the end of 2022. Additionally, the poor performance of Blacklist International, a widely popular team, impacted viewership as they were eliminated after only two games in the Lower Bracket Round 2.
The International 2024 Participants:
- Team Spirit;
- Xtreme Gaming;
- Team Falcons;
- Team Liquid;
- Gaimin Gladiators;
- BetBoom Team;
- 1win;
- Team Zero;
- G2.iG;
- nouns;
- Heroic;
- beastcoast;
- Entity;
- Tundra Esports;
- Talon Esports;
- Aurora.
This battle for the world championship title between the top teams will take place from September 4 to 15 in Denmark, with the Royal Arena, renowned for hosting major esports events, serving as the venue for the finals.