TNL Take: Without further ado, let's jump into the latest esports TV ratings.
Esports TV Ratings (Chart: The Next Level)
MADDEN BOWL ON ESPN 2
TV programming is definitely challenging and even more so for esports. The Madden Bowl, the finals for 2018's Ultimate League, garnered only 128,000 total viewers which was about half that watched the Madden Club Championship in February and a far cry from the #1 program for 2017 with 670,000.
Why the drop in viewership?
There could be several factors for this. First, Madden Bowl went up against the NBA playoffs but didn't get the lead in benefit that ELEAGUE saw a few weeks earlier from the NCAA tournament. Second, while Saturday primetime is better than late Friday nights, the Madden Club Championship was on a Thursday night with little competition. Finally, there was plenty of Madden scheduled throughout Ultimate League's multi-month season starting with Twitch broadcasts on Tuesday's, DisneyXD on Thursday's and culminating in the Finals on ESPN2. Viewer fatigue may have played another factor as well.
ELEAGUE ON TBS
ELEAGUE continued it's first reality show series with The Challenger: Street Fighter V and hit just under 200,000 viewers. This type of shoulder content has performed well for ELEAGUE and has made up a majority of their programming for this year. The May 5th edition aired at 2am and we'll see if the Stars Wars marathon provides any viewership lead in.