Dota 2 returned to North America with a major event after a long time. The Arlington Major featured the best eighteen teams from all around the world in a final LAN event before the International 2022 (TI).
With multiple teams’ TI invites depending on their performance in the event, it drew the attention of many fans, becoming the second most-viewed Major in Dota 2’s history.
The Arlington Major had 707,907 peak viewers, which put it just behind the 2017 Kiev Major’s 842,585 peak viewers. The tournament also had 305,286 average viewers, making it also the sixth most watched Dota 2 event in general.
Dota 2‘s competitive scene has been on the road in the past couple of years. After TI8 was held in Vancouver, Canada, Valve decided to take the competitive scene on a tour around the world. Though ESL One Los Angeles was scheduled to bring Dota 2 back to the states in 2020, the event was canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. It took another two years for an NA event, but the Arlington Major surely delivered on the hype.
With an electric crowd, teams performed to the best of their abilities on the main stage. Considering the major Dota 2 events in 2021 had no to little crowd attendance, it’s been a while since Dota 2 teams and fans got to witness firsthand how it feels like to play with a live audience. From chants to live reactions, the event almost felt like a coming home story for Dota 2, which explains its success in viewership.
It’s TI11 next on the calendar after qualifiers, and it looks like the Dota 2 scene may be gearing up to set another record and break the viewership record of TI10, 2.7 million peak viewers.
