Call of Duty League’s YouTube move hit by massive drop-off
Last year, with a huge part to co-streams, the Call of Duty League was thriving in viewership. It posted record statistics for Majors and beat out every other year of the franchised league's existence.
Why? Many fans will attribute this to Twitch, as the three-year deal with YouTube for the broadcasting rights came to a close after Modern Warfare 2019, Cold War, and Vanguard, meaning the MW2 season was open to go back to multi-platform streams.
However, the Call of Duty League 2024 campaign has re-signed with YouTube, and viewers have plummeted. Hard.
Call of Duty League loses nearly half of its viewers with 2023-24 YouTube deal
Click to enlargeThe Call of Duty League is back, with the Modern Warfare 3 season officially underway.
But not all is plain sailing, as the League has already had a hiccup or two, and the new YouTube deal is not helping matters.
According to Escharts, the viewership for the opening Call of Duty League weekend hit a miserable 106,928 peak fans.
The opening weekend of last season hit a peak of 184,583, which means that over 42% of fans from last year failed to register interest in Call of Duty esports this year.
Call of Duty League viewership plummets with no co-streams
One of the main reasons for last year's success was because of Co-Streams. The Flank, hosted by Thomas "ZooMaa" Paparatto with guest hosts like Ben Nissim and Patrick "Aches" Price, started the season by racking in huge numbers on its talk show and watch parties.
Add The Breakdown into the mix mid-way through the year following the retirement of Seth "Scump" Abner and Anthony "Methodz" Zinni, and the combined watch parties were pulling many thousands more viewers than the main CDL broadcast.
Click to enlargeHowever, the move back to YouTube has meant the two popular shows were banned from watching official CDL matches (both live and in reflection), as any YouTube-exclusive footage being put on Twitch violates the terms and agreements.
Despite this, The Breakdown and The Flank hosted separate non-gameplay streams before combining for an electric talk show post-production, which continued to pull the CDL audience in different directions and away from proper matches.
Alongside the problem of esports visibility on YouTube, the jarring split between watch parties and official broadcasts has created a massive rift in the community, and it's clear to see that it's taken a toll on the League's popularity.
