The Call of Duty World League Championship has broken several viewership records for Call of Duty, as the tournament surpassed 20 million views across all matches, and concurrent viewership was 40% greater than all previous CoD events.
In a press release from Activision, Rob Kostich, EVP and GM of Call of Duty and Activision, said that the inaugural CWL could not have had a better conclusion than at the Forum in Inglewood on Sept. 4.
“It was an epic, raucous finale that capped an incredible weekend of action that was watched around the world by millions,” said Kostich. “We cannot thank the Call of Duty community enough for their support, it has been incredible all year long.”
Produced in five different languages and on four different platforms, including the Black Ops III Live Event Viewer on PS4, the tournament became the most viewed Call of Duty event of all time, passing previous championships and finals.
With eight European teams invited, two entering the final four, and Splyce playing in the championship match, viewership from Europe rose from last year’s championship, as Europeans counted for more than 40% of all viewers.
These numbers run alongside prior reports of Call of Duty’s viewership success, as before the tournament, Call of Duty competitive play has been viewed for over 1.1 billion minutes across over 100 million tune-ins.
Activision also announced that the 2016 World League Championship saw the most online engagements in franchise history.
On the ground, the event was held in front of a sold-out crowd, and capped off CoD XP, a three-day weekend that introduced the multiplayer experience for Inifinite Warfare and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered.
With this record-breaking event in mind, how far has Call of Duty has grown as an esport? And can it get any bigger with the release of Infinite Warfare in November? Let us know in the comments below and for all your Call of Duty updates, make sure you are following us on Twitter, @GAMURScom.
James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted by email at jamestmattone@gmail.com or on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
