Over the last weekend, the Call of Duty League hosted the Pro-Am Classic in Columbus, Ohio. This event featured a $100,000 prize pool, but the main draw of the tournament were the four amateur teams thrown into pools with the 12 official CDL teams and given the chance to show their skills to the world. Unfortunately, not many eyes were on the amateurs during the event.
Esports Charts revealed the viewership numbers for the entirety of the Pro-Am Classic on Monday, and the tournament only reached a peak of 53,000 viewers (which came during the Toronto Ultra vs. New York Subliners match on Sunday). These numbers are significantly down from previous events in 2022. While the fact that this tournament didn’t have any true impact on the CDL season certainly played a factor, it seems the month-long break the CDL took prior to the Pro-Am didn’t do anything for viewership.
53K Peak Viewers on Call of Duty League 2022 Pro-Am Classic.@Subliners vs @TorontoUltra is the most popular match of the event. #CoDLeague @CODLeague
Detailed stats:https://t.co/cZQ2StalYm pic.twitter.com/Bn4XFtW8Ya— Esports Charts 🇺🇦 (@EsportsCharts) May 9, 2022
However, what’s more concerning than that is the average viewership for the entire event. EsportsCharts determined that there were only an average of 26,000 viewers across the weekend. To compare, the average viewership for the Kickoff Classic was 47,000 and the average for Major II was close to 56,000.
The peaks for every event prior to the Pro-Am were also at least 30,000 viewers higher. Once again, this event didn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things. Although, it’s possible that this viewership dip bleeds into the Major III qualifier matches this weekend and beyond. While the actual Major III tournament should see higher numbers, the CDL should be concerned about this drop in viewers as the season progresses.
