WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon drew in more viewers than any Dota 2 DPC Minor
WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon marked only fourth offline Dota 2 event organised by We!Play, yet that did not stop it from becoming one of the most-watched Dota 2 tournaments in history, surpassing all other DPC Minor tournaments with over 295,000 viewers at its peak.
WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon came to a close this Sunday, February 23, with the grand finals between Team Secret and Nigma. The match was an exciting one as it was the North American side, who bounced back from being 0-2 down and produced a remarkable reverse sweep to pocket the title and US $130,000 in prize winnings. While the finals were one for the books, the whole event proved to be a huge success, drawing in nearly 300,000 viewers at its peak, making it one of the most-watched Dota 2 events in history.
The WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon peaked at 295,000 viewers, this in spite of the fact that it was a third-party tournament, held over five days, with no DPC points at stakes and just eight teams in attendance. With 295k viewers, WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon managed to achieve about 60% of the viewer count of the previous DPC Majors. To put it into a perspective, DreamLeague Season 13 Leipzig Dota 2 Major peaked at 474,000 views.
The appeal of the WePlay! Dota 2 tournament, however, should not come off as a shock to anyone, given that their previous event – WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 got greeted with immense approval from the Dota 2 community, which praised the production quality, on-air talent and overall quality of the event itself, which ended with spectacular fireworks. It's clear that WePlay! are putting a lot of work into their events and if their last two events are to go by, they're doing an excellent job.
While WePlay!'s great on-air talent and overall production quality is a huge reason for the success of their events, it was also the calibre of teams in attendance that helped draw in hundreds of thousands of viewers from all over the world. Representing the lineup were some big names in Team Secret, Nigma, Gambit Esports, Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Infamous, Aggressive Mode, as well as the newly-formed Danil "Dendi" Ishutin's team B8.
Although Gambit and Virtus.pro failed to establish their dominance this season, their presence alone is enough to draw in thousands of Dota 2 fans, given their illustrious history, as one of the best teams in Dota 2 history.
Team Secret, on the other side, need no special introduction. As the most dominant team in 2018/19 Dota Pro Circuit season and their fourth-place finish at The International 2019 alone makes them one of the juggernauts in the scene. Talking about juggernaut Dota 2 teams, Nigma are currently under all the spotlight, after the North American organisation signed former Team Liquid roster, which reached the grand finals of TI9.
Even though the grand finals featured Team Secret and Nigma, as two of the strongest teams in the field, it was not the most-watched match of the tournament. That title belonged to the Virtus.pro versus Nigma matchup in the Loser's finals.
What is perhaps even more shocking is that Nigma were involved in five of the most popular matches of the event, clearly implying that Nigma are a team on everyone's mind, as Dota 2 fans are waiting in anticipation to see the ex-Team Liquid roster playing to their full potential.
Five most-watched WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon matches:
Virtus.pro vs Nigma: 295,110 viewers – Final Day
Team Secret vs Nigma: 291,675 viewers – Final Day
Team Secret vs Virtus.pro: 205,040 viewers – Day 4
Team Secret vs Nigma: 118,584 – Day 3
Gambit vs Nigma: 177,574 – Day 4
WePlay! Esports Tug of War: Mad Moon viewership stats:
Overall peak: 295,110
Platform Peak (Twitch): 220,171
Language Peak: 130,761 (Russian); 114,167 (English)
Hours Watched: 5,296,618
Average viewers: 113,499
