ESPORTS TV RATINGS: ELEAGUE FINALS REACH 335K VIEWERS, #2 SHOW FOR 2017
ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational Winner Punk (Photo: Turner)
TNL Take: This weekend saw ELEAGUE's Street Fighter V Invitational come to a conclusion with Victor "Punk" Woodley winning the inaugural tournament taking home $150,000.
TNL Infographic 044: 2017 Q2 eSports TV Ratings (Infographic: The Next Level)
- ELEAGUE Street Fighter: The Finals reached 335,000 total viewers and 183,000 in the 18-49 demo making it the top rated show for Street Fighter's season as well as the #2 show for the year.
For comparison, If the ELEAGUE Finals were on The CW on a Thursday night at 9PM vs. on TBS on a Friday at 10PM, it would have been the #1 rated show for the year.
When looking at ELEAGUE's TV ratings history, Street Fighter performed well when compared vs. Counter-Strike Season 1.
TNL Infographic 045: ELEAGUE TV Ratings History - Total Viewers (Infographic: The Next Level)
This isn't surprising as the Fighting genre is much easier for a casual fan to understand.
Here's what I said last July in The Next Level 031 after ESPN showed Street Fighter at EVO last year:
The Next Level 031 (Photo: The Next Level)
ELEAGUE announced the return of Counter-Strike this fall.