How PGL used influencer co-streams to supercharge esports viewership

Gaming influencers had a significant impact on the PGL 'Counter-Strike' tournament viewership by co-streaming the event. Their involvement more than doubled the event's viewership, with co-streaming viewership accounting for over 60 percent of total hours watched during the event's final day. Viewer engagement in co-streams was also much higher, with 82 percent of co-stream viewers on Twitch participating in the stream's chat, compared to about 18 percent of official-stream viewers.

For the 'Counter-Strike' major in Copenhagen, PGL endorsed over a dozen official watch parties hosted by gaming livestreamers such as Felix “xQc” Lengyel and Jaryd “summit1g” Lazar. These livestreamers re-shared the event’s official broadcast on their personal Twitch and YouTube channels, which significantly increased the viewership and engagement for the event.

PGL adopted a strategy of leveraging the natural love for 'Counter-Strike' among streamers to increase viewership without incurring extra costs. Unlike Ubisoft, which paid influencers for official co-streams, PGL simply took advantage of streamers' enthusiasm for the game to convince them to share the event with their viewers, thereby boosting viewership numbers and engagement without spending money on the co-streaming initiative.

The potential benefits for esports event sponsors include increased visibility due to the exploding viewership numbers and high engagement rates that co-streamers bring. However, there are drawbacks as well, such as the fact that many fans who tune into co-streams might be more interested in the individual streamer rather than being deeply invested esports fans, which could affect the type of engagement and long-term viewership for the sponsors.

PGL's success with co-streaming has positioned it impressively among other esports league operators. It is now responsible for the top-three most-viewed 'Counter-Strike' tournaments of all time in terms of peak viewership. This success shows that PGL could be a viable alternative to larger competitors like Blast and ESL/FACEIT Group for publishers looking to partner with third-party operators to run their esports leagues and events, especially as the industry shifts towards a third-party model.