Last week on Twitch, Fortnite solidified its lead on PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS. Meanwhile, Dota 2 rises to fourth place, jointly thanks to the Dota 2 Asia Championship qualifiers, and streamer Artour “Arteezy” Babaev.

Every week, The Esports Observer breaks down the most watched Twitch content from a curated list of more than 35,000 channels, and analyzes the major esports competitions, events, and news affecting video game streaming. The titles are ranked according to the total number of hours watched for each title, from Monday to the following Sunday, with data compiled using TEO Audience Insights.







League of Legends Hangs on to No. 1, but is There a Mid-Season Slump?

League of Legends continues to dominate Twitch. In all but the rarest circumstances, it tops the platform in terms of hours watched. Largely this can be attributed to the broadcasts of Riot’s official leagues which regularly contribute at least 2 million hours watched each week.

Despite the popularity of the NA LCS and the EU LCS, which both air on the official Riot Games Twitch channel, hours have been continuously declining since the first week of the new season. While the drop from week to week has been less dramatic than the Overwatch League, the pattern of decline has been fairly consistent. This is not totally unexpected. As the initial excitement wears off, fewer fans tend to tune in each week.

Perhaps more importantly, the streamers, who account for the majority of hours watched, did not earn as many eyes this week. Notably Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp is no longer the most watched League of Legends streamer. Instead, that honor returns to Michael “imaqtpie” Santana, a former pro player for Team Dignitas and Delta Fox, Echo Fox’s academy team.

Fortnite Continues to Fend Off PUBG



The ongoing war for the top battle royale game has reached a new fever pitch this week. Feb. 06, 2018 saw the return of Guy “Dr DisRespect” Beahm to Twitch. In his first stream back, the Doc crashed the site and set the record for the highest peak concurrent viewership for an individual streamer. One might have expected this to affect the ultimate outcome, however Dr DisRespect split his time between the two titles in addition to PUBG forerunner, H1Z1. While the majority of his viewership was during his PUBG streams, this was enough to muddy the water.

And the rivalry between Dr DisRespect and Tyler1 may have hit a boiling point this week due to the initially disputed viewership record, the Doc might want to reconsider his competition.

Fortnite has found its own star in Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Initially gaining notoriety as a professional Halo player, Ninja continues to compete in battle royale titles for Luminosity Gaming. While most of his competition appearances have been in PUBG, his stream is entirely dedicated to Fortnite. And last week, he was the most popular streamer on Twitch by hours watched.

A Star’s Return Propels Dota 2 to No. 4



While Dota 2 regularly breaks into the Top 10 on Twitch, it’s rare for Valve’s MOBA to accrue this many hours without a major tournament. Dota 2’s success this week rests squarely on the shoulders of pro player Artour “Arteezy” Babaev.

As he currently plays for Evil Geniuses, Arteezy’s streams tend to be irregular at best. Prior to this week, he had only streamed once in 2018. But with four broadcasts in the last week, Arteezy brought in enough viewership to be the most watched Dota 2 channel for the week and to push the game up to its No. 4 spot.

Hearthstone’s Latest Patch is a Boon to Viewership



Hearthstone may be one of the most popular games on Twitch, but it’s viewership remains highly cyclical. Blizzard releases new expansions to its collectible card game approximately every four months and each brings a massive spike in viewership. However, the next expansion isn’t due to release until April.

Instead, this latest boost in viewership was a result of a balance patch released on Feb. 6. Players looking to adapt their decks and strategies to these changes resulted in a surge of viewers tuning into their favorite streamers.

While Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang continued to lead in hours watched, professional players like G2’s Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk and TeamSpirit’s Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov were the go-to streams for fans.

Overwatch League Continues to Boost Twitch Viewership



While not placed as highly as League of Legends on this list, Overwatch League’s official channel continues to rack up the most hours watched of any single channel on Twitch. At 3.5 million hours watched in the last week, the league’s main stream earned nearly 1 million hours more than the next most popular channel (Ninja). This was further boosted by the conclusion of the first of four stages the league will hold this season.

Much of this success can be attributed to the longer broadcast times and the four days of play per week. This is a stark contrast to Riot’s NA LCS, which only plays two days per week. Though this is somewhat complicated by the fact that the EU LCS, which also plays for two days per week, and the NA Academy League’s day of matches are both also aired on the same channel as the NA LCS.

We’ll hold off until next week to analyze these games on a per hour basis (given the stage final), but Overwatch had found a strategy that will likely appeal more to advertisers and investors given the increased number of hours watched.

Unique Tournament for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Fails to Hold Audience’s Attention



Beyond the Summit continue to be one of the most innovative tournament organizers in esports. Their summits play out less like traditional tournaments and more like reality TV. Held in a house rather than a stadium, the summits feature a far more casual atmosphere than most other events.

Moments like these are not uncommon at the summit house

However, BTS is known for their Dota 2 and Super Smash Bros. Melee summits; this was only the second CS:GO tournament they held. While they earned a very respectable 1.8 million hours over the weekend, this is nothing compared to other major CS:GO tournaments. This is approximately one tenth of the the 17.1M hours watched during ELEAGUE Boston Major.

While I count myself as a personal fan of Beyond the Summit’s work, they failed to draw in enough hours to bring CS:GO higher than No. 7 on our list.

The Twitch Content Round-Up uses data collected from TEO Audience Insights. You can learn more about the platform and discover more streaming and social media stats yourself by clicking here.