The eSports industry is growing – a fact well known. But the point was hammered home when the latest viewing figures collected by Nielsen came to light. The 2012 MLG Spring Championship Sunday which took place in Anaheim on June 8th this year, hosting both Starcraft II and League of Legends tournaments. When pitted against other major sporting events in the US, the Spring Championship demonstrated significantly higher ratings.
Sundance DiGiovanni – MLG CEO – earlier this month tweeted: “Every viewing record in the history of ever just got shit on. #MLGAnaheim” and looking at the figures this certainly seemed true; The Spring Championship Sunday figures trampled on those of prestigious sporting events in 2012 such as the NBA all stars match, the NBA draft and renowned American college football match – the Rose Bowl.
There were however, important details that the figures didn’t show; The fact that the MLG event was streamed online internationally and that it is a multi-game tournament – unlike the other events on the graph.
However, topping 1.35 million viewers in one day is no small achievement. Dreamhack recently produced similar figures showing over 4 million unique viewers over three days. E-Sports is rocking it right now.