Dota 2 Major DreamLeague Season 11 amassed a total of 10 million hours in viewing time this month, it has been confirmed.
The DreamHack-organised event, held in Stockholm, Sweden, was the third Major on the Dota Pro Circuit, with a prize pool of $1 million on offer.
After 11 days of action, Vici Gaming came out victorious, defeating Virtus.pro 3-2 in the grand finals. The Chinese outfit took home $350,000 and 4,950 DPC points for the win. Pre-tournament favourites in the Dota 2 betting, Team Secret, maintained a faultless record in the competition’s earlier rounds, but ultimately came unstuck against Virtus.pro, considered second-favourites with most Dota 2 betting sites, after being drawn together in the lower bracket semifinals.
According to a report by The eSports Observer, the two official DreamHack channels were the highest-viewed on Twitch during the duration of the March 14-24 tournament, with these accounts registering over 10 million hours watched by users. The English-language DreamHack channel accounted for 5.8 million total hours watched, with the Russian broadcast coming in close behind, at 5.6 million total hours watched. Meanwhile, the Russian channel peaked at 203,000 concurrent viewers, with the English-language channel trailing behind on 124,000.
The boost in viewership meant Dota 2 became the fourth-most-popular game on Twitch during the period, with over 20 million hours of live gameplay viewed in total over the course of the tournament. These figures are staggering, especially when you consider the fact that the last DreamLeague that served as a Dota major, held in December 2017, racked up just over 4.2 million total hours viewed (although it had a shorter format).
Next up on the Pro circuit is the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, with a prize pool of $1 million again being on offer. Vici surprisingly had difficulty coming through their qualifiers, eventually securing their spot via the lower bracket. They will look to build on their DreamLeague triumph to cement themselves as contenders when the Dota 2 betting tips are released, although fellow Chinese side PSG.LGD are believed to be a force to be reckoned with.