Call of Duty League 2021 kicked off this past weekend with four days of the Atlanta FaZe Home Series, and managed to set new viewership records along the way. Average viewership increased by nearly 50% over the 2020 season opening weekend, and the match between Optic Chicago and Atlanta FaZe set a League record for peak viewership during a regular Season match (not including Championships) at 131K viewers. Take a look at all of the new records the CDL 2021 opening weekend set below.
Call of Duty League 2021 Opening Weekend Records
- Peak Viewership Record: The Optic Chicago vs. Atlanta FaZe match setting a record in peak viewership for the regular season with 131K viewers at peak.
- Primetime Average Viewership Record: The average audience per minute of the Optic Chicago vs. Atlanta FaZe match was 118K, which also makes it the most-watched regular season match.
- Event Average Viewership Record: The entire weekend held an average audience per minute of 80K, which makes it the most-watched CDL event outside of 2020 Champs (which itself set numerous records last year).
- Live Average Viewership and Total Hours Watched Records: Both numbers increased by just under 50% from the Opening Weekend of the 2020 season.
- Unique Viewers Record: 1.3 million unique viewers watched the CDL 2021 live broadcast at some point during the opening weekend, an increase of 70% over Opening Weekend 2020.
- Fan Engagement: Around 209K Activision accounts were linked to the CDL streams by end of Opening Weekend, which lets players earn rewards in-game for Black Ops Cold War and Warzone by watching live matches.
Call of Duty League returns this year with a renewed strength after an unpredictable 2020 that changed how the event had to be handled. In spite of the pandemic, last year’s events still set Call of Duty esports records, and with even more preparation and time to account for the changes, the new 2021 Season is already off to an impressive start. Expect more surprises and announcements throughout the rest of the season that will help set even more records as these 12 teams move towards Champs.
Call of Duty League 2021’s Stage 1 continues with Week 2 starting on Thursday February 18th at 12pm PST/3pm EST and running through Sunday. The Stage 1 Major will take place during the week of March 1st, concluding the first of five Stages for the Season. You can win prizes by predicting match outcomes with the new Call of Duty League Pick ’em system, letting you set which teams you think will win and by how much. Make sure to brush up on performances from the opening weekend to see how the teams are stacking up this year.