PMGC 2021 Finals Viewership Drops 70% – What’s the point?

[ad_1]

The PUBG Mobile Global Championship finals have just taken place. The event was the highlight of the year for PUBG players and fans alike, and it saw Nova Esports take the top spot as world champions once again. However, the viewership for the PMGC 2021 Finals was a pretty big disappointment compared to the previous year, even if the action was not. The event ended up attracting significantly fewer viewers than the previous year’s events.

Between the move to YouTube and in-game streaming, the viewership numbers just weren’t there, and it wasn’t because the game was less popular.

PMGC 2021 Finals Viewership Drops 70%

The PMGC 2021 Finals is the final step in finding a champion for the PUBG Mobile Action of the Year. The event represents the top tier of this game, so naturally, it’s one of the most popular for the game. However, the viewership seems to have dropped off a lot this year.

Viewership for the 2021 PMGC Finals peaked at 646,633 viewers. The previous year’s peak was around 4.0 million. This is quite a significant drop in terms of raw numbers and it certainly means fewer people watching the official stream. Does that mean the event was considerably less popular?

This may not be the case.

The PMGC Finals aired in a different way this time around. Last year, the event was viewable on Facebook, Twitch and Nimo TV, with one of them offering rewards to viewers. This year, the event is entirely YouTube-exclusive, with drops contingent on crossing certain viewership numbers. This resulted in a slight drop, and it’s not the only game to suffer under these circumstances.

YouTube is not ideal for esports broadcasts

For some time, YouTube has been looking to reclaim some of the gaming market from Twitch. This has included trying to get more streamers onto their platform and browsing through a number of exclusive esports streaming rights. This included the PMGC 2021 Finals. However, the drop in viewership is not exclusive to PUBG.

Other major esports that have migrated to YouTube have seen similar declines, especially the Overwatch League. The OWL saw its viewership drop by up to 70% when it first moved to YouTube. This may have more to do with issues involving drop rewards on streams. YouTube Overwatch’s viewership has grown in recent seasons.

Other games like LoL have even surpassed their Twitch viewership on YouTube. While YouTube exclusivity is clearly a factor for the PMGC 2021 Finals viewership drops, the games have different results relative to the move. Titles that don’t continue at the same level of drops often run into more problems than those that do.

The switch to YouTube can be difficult for many games, and it’s definitely a factor in how well this year’s PUBG Mobile Finals performed. This doesn’t necessarily show that YouTube is still to blame for a drop in viewership. However, a drop is definitely a possibility for games moving wholesale to YouTube. Hopefully PUBG Mobile can handle things a bit better next time and we can increase the viewership for the game.

[ad_2]