The original Magic: The Gathering competitive digital platform, Magic Online, showed its age this weekend, barely pulling in 10,000 peak viewers for the Magic Online Championship.
Magic Online came onto the PC scene in 2002. As time progressed, it became a platform for the various formats in Magic: The Gathering. Players could compete in Modern, Legacy, and even Pauper. Eventually, it also became a hub for pros to test out decks prior to major tournaments and events.
But Wizards of the Coast never did anything to digitally upgrade Magic Online, allowing it to look like it just stepped out of the early 2000s. Instead, MTG Arena launched and immediately became a fan-favorite for digital PC play. Magic: The Gathering Arena, however, only allows for Standard and Limited play formats.
As the Magic Online Championship got underway on May 17, the stream suffered visually because of the old digital format and there were major audio problems during the first half of the stream. As day one of the Magic Online Championship came to a close, the peak viewers barely grew above 3,500.
Day two produced better numbers since MPL Weekly aired during the break portion and day three saw a small increase for the semifinals and final match of the Magic Online Championship.
Due to the drama surrounding Wizards of the Coast, it could be assumed that views are down because of frustrated fans. But MPL Weekly, where most of the drama has stemmed from, continues to pull in views from week one and week two’s Twitch videos—week one is at almost 100,000 views.
The true test will come on June 21 to 23 when MTG Arena hosts Mythic Championship III. As for now, the only Magic: The Gathering platform pulling in decent Twitch views is Arena through streamer-sponsored events and MTG Arena run tournaments.
