Call of Duty League returns to YouTube

The professional esports league for the popular shooter Call of Duty made a comeback on YouTube yesterday, bringing its thrilling battles back to the platform exclusively.

After broadcasting its games entirely on YouTube Gaming for its first three seasons, the CDL abruptly switched to Twitch for the 2023 season. However, after missing some action, the Call of Duty League is now back on YouTube Gaming.

It was reported earlier in February that the Call of Duty League was negotiating yet another exclusivity agreement that would tie the League to a three-year broadcasting deal with YouTube. This no longer appears to be the case, as Twitch is still an option for viewers to tune in since the league didn’t sign an exclusive broadcast agreement with YouTube. As a result, every game in the Call of Duty League will now be streamed on both Twitch and YouTube.

Call of Duty League’s viewership is expected to rise 

The league returned to Twitch for the 2023 season when the three-year agreement with YouTube expired, but without an exclusivity agreement. According to reports, the move to Twitch before the 2023 season saw a huge rise in viewership. The CDL had more than twice as many viewers on Twitch during its inaugural weekend than it did on YouTube the season before, according to a report from esports data company Esports Charts.

The Call of Duty League Major III competition saw a peak viewership count of 335,170 users, breaking previous records for viewership. It outdrew the previous record-holder, the Call of Duty League 2020 Finals, by about 5,000 viewers, making it the most-watched Call of Duty esports event in history.

The CDL League outperformed some of the popular leagues when comparing the data with major tournaments from different FPS games. More people watched it on average than BLAST Premier Spring American Showdown 2022, which had 120K viewers on average, and more people watched it on peak than VCT 2022: EMEA Stage 2 Challengers, which had 192K viewers on the peak.

 

Massive watch parties held by people like Seth “Scump” Abner and Thomas “ZooMaa” Paparatto, both of whom are former professional COD players turned content creators, have contributed to the spike in viewership. It is obvious how crucial it is for Call of Duty League to maintain its presence on Twitch given that these two content creators publicly expressed their desire to remain on Twitch. 

With games now being streamed on both YouTube and Twitch, spectators will have additional alternatives for watching their favorite teams compete while the intriguing part of the league like Scump’s insightful commentary will continue to embellish the league.

Header: CDL League