VCT Pacific kept pulling in huge crowds, and the 2023 KICKOFF event just beat the previous league record from last year.
SOUTH KOREA – The VCT Pacific KICKOFF event reached a peak viewership of 462,603, setting a new record for the Pacific region, as reported by statistics website Esports Charts. The matchup between T1 and ZETA DIVISION on the third day of the VCT Pacific KICKOFF Group Stage exceeded the peak viewership of the 2023 VCT Pacific League, which stood at 399,520 during the Grand Finals featuring Paper Rex and DRX.
The average viewership reached 254,547 viewers, representing an impressive 83.81% increase from the previous year’s league which had 138,528 viewers. It’s important to note that the duration of the competition played a role in influencing the average number, with longer events typically leading to a reduction in averages.
Twitch and YouTube continue to dominate as the go-to platforms for watching, with additional contributions from platforms such as TikTok, AfreecaTV, and Naver Esports.
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Esports Charts reports that over 140 channels were covering the VCT Pacific KICKFF event, including the official livestream, secondary language livestreams, and co-streams. Notably, Paper Rex’s Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie achieved a peak viewership of 22 thousand during the event.
Japan remains the main source of viewership, constituting 65% of the peak viewership numbers, with 302 thousand viewers tuning in to the Japanese-language broadcasts, while half of that (148 thousand) tuned in to the English-language broadcasts of the event. Korean, Thai, and Indonesian viewers contributed to the event’s popularity as well, each attracting around 30-40 thousand viewers.
Despite an overall upward trend in viewership for secondary language broadcasts during the KICKOFF event, Tagalog experienced a considerable decline, nearly halving its viewership compared to last year.
The standout performances of Japan’s ZETA DIVISION and DetonatioN FocusMe contributed to the heightened viewership at the event. Among the top five most popular matches of the VCT Pacific KICKOFF, four featured Japanese teams, with the grand final being the sole exception. This was further amplified by the collaboration between DFM and Crazy Raccoon, along with Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker’s return to the tier-one scene with Bleed Esports, attracting a new audience for the regional tier-one circuit particularly from outside of Asia.
The Grand Finals between Paper Rex and Gen.G did not attain the highest popularity, partly because it lacked full support from the Japanese region with with only former Crazy Raccoon player Byeon “Munchkin” Sang-beom, former IGZIST player Kim “Lakia” Jong-min, and former Sengoku Gaming player Ilia “something” Petrov standing as some of the Japan’s familiar faces. However, it still reached the second-highest peak viewership among the VCT Pacific matches, with 433,566 viewers witnessing the Korean side’s huge upset against the reigning Pacific League champions, securing a 3-1 victory.
The VCT Pacific KICKOFF event has surpassed all previous tournaments in the region in terms of viewership, including the 2023 VCT Pacific League, LCQ, and Ascension. However, it falls considerably short of the peak viewership achieved in the Americas region, which reached a remarkable 823,008 during the Grand Finals featuring two of the most renowned teams in the entire region, Sentinels and LOUD.
In comparison to the Pacific region, EMEA still lags behind with a peak viewership of 419,206 in the match between FNATIC and Karmine Corp. Meanwhile, Esports Charts did not monitor the complete viewership figures for VCT CN, as the event was predominantly streamed on non-trackable Chinese platforms like Douyu, Huya, and others.
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Cover photo courtesy of VCT Pacific
