More People Watched Major League Gaming Online Than the NFL Draft

[jpoon]

Sweet, this is a great thing to see. Gaming besting the fuck out of mainstream media, love it love it love it!

 

[John Funk]

It's a lot closer this way, but honestly, that still ain't too shabby at all. For comparison, last night's NBA finals Game 6 reportedly clocked in 17.2 million viewers [http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/06/13/2011-nba-finals-on-abc-second-most-viewed-since-2004/95475/]. MLG still comes out ahead here, and even though you could argue that these numbers are fudged thanks to multiple streams broadcasting at once, it has every right to be proud of its numbers.

You've misread the NBA statistics. 17.2 million was the viewership averaged across the entire six game series. According to the article you linked, Game 6 last night delivered 23.5 million viewers, which is more than MLG was able to muster over the entire three day event.

Good try though!

That's true. Corrected.

Doesn't that kind of make the whole report a farce though? I'm just saying man!

Not really? It still got more streams than the NBA finals averaged. Without knowing specifics, if those were total numbers where one person counted as one stream no matter how many times they clicked on the link, or whether it counted someone who watched all three days three times, then it's impossible to judge.

 

[Meanmoose]

I watched it! It was epic as hell! Thorzain fighting!

 

[deth2munkies]

These numbers are extremely misleading.

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=233102

450k UNIQUE views.

Considering how often their streams lagged or cut out temporarily, there was a lot of refreshing going on. The average person refreshed the stream ~50 times.

 

[Traun]

I watched as well. When the SC2 stream was down between games I tried watching the Black Ops stream and two things stuck out in my mind.

1. Why the fuck are you doing competitive FPS play on a PS3 rather than a PC?
2. They're not doing anything but running in and dying. This looks no different than any of the matches me and my friends have played.

Don't get me wrong, I love the big FPS titles, but that shit was boring and they didn't look much more skilled than the slightly above average guy that people sometimes is falsely claimed to be hacking.

You should see a Quake tournament or a CS one.
Quake guys make you feel like a complete amateur and CS teams have the best team working in video games - period.

That being said, CoD is popular, therefore a lot of people can relate to the game.

 

[Jesus Phish]

The draft isn't really that interesting...

I like the NFL but I don't watch the draft. Just like some of my friends like soccer but they don't watch the team pairings for the world cup.

 

[Jesus Phish]

MLG... Ugh.

Its embarrassing to see my hobby try so hard to be something that it just isnt. Gaming is not a sport. Nor should it ever be. Not to mention the terrible influence that MLG and its ilk have had on multiplayer gaming across all platforms.

I dunno why everyone is always trying to make gaming into something other gaming, be it sport, art, the replacement for flim, blah blah blah. Why cant gaming just be gaming?

Theres lots of money to be had at turning it into a sport if it catches on. I agree though that the MLG is a terrible terrible representation of gamers and gaming as a multiplayer/sporting arena.

 

[staika]

That's surprising but I was one of the people watching the NBA finals because basketball is my favorite sport too bad my team (the New York Knicks) suck and were ousted in the first round. But as for the MLG I don't see the appeal of watching other people play video games but that is probably just me.

 

[health-bar]

christ, i had to skip to 25:00 to actually see gameplay.

THIS IS NOT HOW VIDEOGAMES SHOULD BE.

 

[boag]

I went to the site and saw around 8 tournaments of CoD and Black Ops, is this why those games are so popular?

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I can't really get into any of the SC2 tournaments like I can the earlier BW ones. Its not a very interesting spectator e-sport in my opinion. Of course, I think e-sports in general are kinda crappy.
I am not surprised it outdid the NBA finals though. Its the friggin' NBA. The joke of all sports. Of course, since I might not even get an NFL season this year, who knows what I'll watch.

 

[crop52]

I actually saw one of these "MLG" videos because it was featured on youtube.
It was of this guy named "Idra" quitting a game when he was just about to win.

shame, shame, shame,

 

[Plurralbles]

jeeze I wish I was good enough to play at MLG... That would be awesome.

 

[Lionsfan]

Hm, let's see, one-on-one Starcraft tournament where strategies have to be made up on the fly and matches could go either playing for a shiny piece of metal way versus two boring basketball teams no one cares about playing for a shiny piece of metal. Yeah, I'd go with the MLG tourney too.

Hmmmm......a bunch of fat losers pointing, clicking, and typing over a stupid boring video game versus a bunch of athletes who are actually doing something physically playing for one of the most coveted trophies in sports.


See how that can can easily be turned around? It's no use insulting another league [footnote]unless it's that pansy ass soccer........[footnote] Just kidding, I'm a pretty big fan despite the limited coverage over here in the State[footnote]and don't bring up Minor League Soccer as a rational alternative[/footnote][/footnote][/footnote] because just about everyone has different tastes. And since more people watch the NBA [footnote]Game 6 had something like 23 million people for that one game, while this MLG tourney had like 16 for three days combined, so viewership point NBA[/footnote] you're gonna be outnumbered in any argument you would try to make with them

 

[ckam]

Yay, it's great to know that it's being taken seriously as a sport.