According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the event accumulated peak viewing figures of 159,787 and averaged viewership figures of 74,468 across its 28-hour air time.
Halo’s most popular event, based on peak viewership, remains the HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh tournament which took place in 2021. The tournament continues to top the charts with a total of 267,279 peak viewers and 4.2m hours watched.
This year’s event was won by North American esports organisation FaZe Clan, which secured $400,000 (~£328,810) after defeating OpTic Gaming in the Grand Final. This year, all of the HCS LAN events have taken place in the United States of America. In June 2023, the HCS ran an invitational event at DreamHack Dallas alongside Counter-Strike, Rocket League and Fortnite.
In comparison to the 2022 Halo World Championship, 2023 has shown encouraging signs of growth for Halo esports. Peak viewership increased by approximately 11.2% while its average viewers have risen by 33.5%.
Following the conclusion of the 2023 event, the HCS confirmed the Halo esports circuit will be returning in 2024. Details on the prize pool, partnered teams, and event locations have yet to be revealed.
The year-on-year growth of Halo is positive news for the partnered teams involved and fans of the arena shooter. With more eyes on the esports spectacle, it will be interesting to see if any other organisations qualify for its partner team programme.
Jonno Nicholson
Jonno is a Freelance News Writer for Esports Insider and has been part of the ESI team since 2019! His interests include the rapid rise of sim racing and its impact on the wider industry.
According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the event accumulated peak viewing figures of 159,787 and averaged viewership figures of 74,468 across its 28-hour air time.
Halo’s most popular event, based on peak viewership, remains the HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh tournament which took place in 2021. The tournament continues to top the charts with a total of 267,279 peak viewers and 4.2m hours watched.
This year’s event was won by North American esports organisation FaZe Clan, which secured $400,000 (~£328,810) after defeating OpTic Gaming in the Grand Final. This year, all of the HCS LAN events have taken place in the United States of America. In June 2023, the HCS ran an invitational event at DreamHack Dallas alongside Counter-Strike, Rocket League and Fortnite.
In comparison to the 2022 Halo World Championship, 2023 has shown encouraging signs of growth for Halo esports. Peak viewership increased by approximately 11.2% while its average viewers have risen by 33.5%.
Following the conclusion of the 2023 event, the HCS confirmed the Halo esports circuit will be returning in 2024. Details on the prize pool, partnered teams, and event locations have yet to be revealed.
The year-on-year growth of Halo is positive news for the partnered teams involved and fans of the arena shooter. With more eyes on the esports spectacle, it will be interesting to see if any other organisations qualify for its partner team programme.
Jonno Nicholson
Jonno is a Freelance News Writer for Esports Insider and has been part of the ESI team since 2019! His interests include the rapid rise of sim racing and its impact on the wider industry.
Very few innovations in the esports world have motivated hardcore games to convert to esports viewers quite like in-game item rewards, colloquially referred to as ‘drops’. Almost all major competitions have them: in League of Legends, VALORANT, Counter Strike, Rainbow Six, Overwatch, Rocket League, even Halo.
Drops work by rewarding players with in-game items either randomly or after a certain number of hours have been watched of a given esport, or specific tournament. Viewers who watch the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), for example, can earn exclusive in-game items for their cars. It can be as simple as a cosmetic attachment for your gun or as fundamental as a beta pass to a new game: in short, drops bring more eyeballs to a desired broadcast.
As the practice has become more common, different publishers have introduced their own in-game item drop schemes to incentivise viewership.
One of the most notable examples of leveraging in-game drops to draw viewers was in 2020, when Riot Games was launching its then-brand new shooter, VALORANT. To get access to the game’s beta you had to watch certain broadcasts with your Riot Games account linked to your Twitch, a strategy now replicated by many publishers.
It worked like a lottery where any viewer could be the next lucky gamer to get access to the new tactical FPS that all the big names were playing at the time. Thanks to this strategy, and the hype campaign Riot is known for, in the months of April and May VALORANT became the most watched video game on Twitch, beating colossuses like Riot’s own League of Legends and Valve’s CS:GO.
Overwatch 2, meanwhile, also offers a ‘watch and earn’ scheme where players can get in-game sprays, character skins and other cosmetics from watching the Overwatch League. Blizzard’s Overwatch drop system offers a case study in the efficacy of audience retention when using in-game drops. Blizzard said in a recent press conference that 70% of Overwatch players care deeply about collecting the various in-game skins.
When Blizzard put one of their new premium skins as a reward for watching six full hours of competitions, the viewership of that particular weekend of matches jumped by 25%, per data from viewership analytics platform Esports Charts. But for the following week of competitions, where there was no new cosmetic for watching, viewership dropped back down again — by almost 25%.
The same thing happened a few months later but with an Overwatch League-themed skin. The rise and subsequent fall were not as severe (only 8%) but it drew attention to the fact that drops can be a double-edged sword.
The Overwatch League has a dedicated program to reward viewers with in-game items. Image credit: Overwatch League
Another interesting case study comes from one of the esports with the most loyal fanbases: Halo. When Halo Infinite dropped its multiplayer as a separate free to play experience, the internet exploded and viewership records were broken when the first Halo Championship Series (HCS) Major debuted a few months later.
But in the following weeks, many of the new players — and viewers — lost interest, leaving only the older, dedicated, more loyal core fanbase of the historic shooter. Against this backdrop, developer 343 Industries tried to draw viewers back with in-game item rewards for fans during its 2021 season. However, the audience metrics of the tournament appear to have remained largely unchanged by the presence of drops.
Viewership remained right along its previous average of 55,000-60,000 viewers despite the free cosmetics that the broadcast promoted — an indication, perhaps, that the game’s more established core fanbase was willing to watch Halo esports regardless of drops.
In CS:GO, meanwhile, Valve had long used a drop system to reward viewers of ‘Majors’ — Valve-sponsored events that are the most prestigious in the CS:GO calendar. The drops came in the form of ‘souvenir packages’ that dropped randomly after watching a game, and gained hype and notoriety for their (very low) chance to contain extremely rare skins worth thousands of real-world dollars.
CS:GO Majors were long famous for the rare chance to drop valuable in-game skins to viewers. Image credit: BLAST, Michal Konkol
CS:GO Majors have always been the most watched esports events (nine of the top ten CS:GO events by peak viewers were Majors), though it’s impossible to delineate how much of that viewership was driven by drops rather than the prestige and scale of the tournament.
However, Valve has since essentially removed in-game drop rewards for watching majors, instead moving to a system where users buy a digital pass and must correctly guess tournament results in order to get prizes. Despite removing this supposed viewing incentive, the change has not appeared to affect viewership — in fact, CS:GO has seen sizable viewership growth of its Majors since the changes took place.
In-game drops can be a useful resource in understanding the audience of an esport and their motivations for playing and watching. And there’s evidence to suggest drops can boost viewership — at least while they remain active.
Case studies indicate that implementing in-game drops has to be a carefully planned move and be a part of a well-planned strategy in order to avoid fleeting gains. However, the effect is variable across titles, and also depends on a variety of other factors — it is one tool amongst many in publishers’ arsenals to boost esports viewership.
Very few innovations in the esports world have motivated hardcore games to convert to esports viewers quite like in-game item rewards, colloquially referred to as ‘drops’. Almost all major competitions have them: in League of Legends, VALORANT, Counter Strike, Rainbow Six, Overwatch, Rocket League, even Halo.
Drops work by rewarding players with in-game items either randomly or after a certain number of hours have been watched of a given esport, or specific tournament. Viewers who watch the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), for example, can earn exclusive in-game items for their cars. It can be as simple as a cosmetic attachment for your gun or as fundamental as a beta pass to a new game: in short, drops bring more eyeballs to a desired broadcast.
As the practice has become more common, different publishers have introduced their own in-game item drop schemes to incentivise viewership.
One of the most notable examples of leveraging in-game drops to draw viewers was in 2020, when Riot Games was launching its then-brand new shooter, VALORANT. To get access to the game’s beta you had to watch certain broadcasts with your Riot Games account linked to your Twitch, a strategy now replicated by many publishers.
It worked like a lottery where any viewer could be the next lucky gamer to get access to the new tactical FPS that all the big names were playing at the time. Thanks to this strategy, and the hype campaign Riot is known for, in the months of April and May VALORANT became the most watched video game on Twitch, beating colossuses like Riot’s own League of Legends and Valve’s CS:GO.
Overwatch 2, meanwhile, also offers a ‘watch and earn’ scheme where players can get in-game sprays, character skins and other cosmetics from watching the Overwatch League. Blizzard’s Overwatch drop system offers a case study in the efficacy of audience retention when using in-game drops. Blizzard said in a recent press conference that 70% of Overwatch players care deeply about collecting the various in-game skins.
When Blizzard put one of their new premium skins as a reward for watching six full hours of competitions, the viewership of that particular weekend of matches jumped by 25%, per data from viewership analytics platform Esports Charts. But for the following week of competitions, where there was no new cosmetic for watching, viewership dropped back down again — by almost 25%.
The same thing happened a few months later but with an Overwatch League-themed skin. The rise and subsequent fall were not as severe (only 8%) but it drew attention to the fact that drops can be a double-edged sword.
The Overwatch League has a dedicated program to reward viewers with in-game items. Image credit: Overwatch League
Another interesting case study comes from one of the esports with the most loyal fanbases: Halo. When Halo Infinite dropped its multiplayer as a separate free to play experience, the internet exploded and viewership records were broken when the first Halo Championship Series (HCS) Major debuted a few months later.
But in the following weeks, many of the new players — and viewers — lost interest, leaving only the older, dedicated, more loyal core fanbase of the historic shooter. Against this backdrop, developer 343 Industries tried to draw viewers back with in-game item rewards for fans during its 2021 season. However, the audience metrics of the tournament appear to have remained largely unchanged by the presence of drops.
Viewership remained right along its previous average of 55,000-60,000 viewers despite the free cosmetics that the broadcast promoted — an indication, perhaps, that the game’s more established core fanbase was willing to watch Halo esports regardless of drops.
In CS:GO, meanwhile, Valve had long used a drop system to reward viewers of ‘Majors’ — Valve-sponsored events that are the most prestigious in the CS:GO calendar. The drops came in the form of ‘souvenir packages’ that dropped randomly after watching a game, and gained hype and notoriety for their (very low) chance to contain extremely rare skins worth thousands of real-world dollars.
CS:GO Majors were long famous for the rare chance to drop valuable in-game skins to viewers. Image credit: BLAST, Michal Konkol
CS:GO Majors have always been the most watched esports events (nine of the top ten CS:GO events by peak viewers were Majors), though it’s impossible to delineate how much of that viewership was driven by drops rather than the prestige and scale of the tournament.
However, Valve has since essentially removed in-game drop rewards for watching majors, instead moving to a system where users buy a digital pass and must correctly guess tournament results in order to get prizes. Despite removing this supposed viewing incentive, the change has not appeared to affect viewership — in fact, CS:GO has seen sizable viewership growth of its Majors since the changes took place.
In-game drops can be a useful resource in understanding the audience of an esport and their motivations for playing and watching. And there’s evidence to suggest drops can boost viewership — at least while they remain active.
Case studies indicate that implementing in-game drops has to be a carefully planned move and be a part of a well-planned strategy in order to avoid fleeting gains. However, the effect is variable across titles, and also depends on a variety of other factors — it is one tool amongst many in publishers’ arsenals to boost esports viewership.
North American esports organisation Gamers First (G1) has revealed plans for a new multi-purpose headquarters facility, which will include studios, training facilities and an event space.
The new 25,500 square-foot facility is located in the East Congress district of Austin, Texas. The space will be used as a headquarters for G1’s esports operations, as well as other companies owned by G1 CEO and Co-Founder Kenny Vaccaro.
Co-founded by former NFL player Kenny Vaccaro, G1 is a North American esports organisation that fields competitive teams in Halo, Rocket League, and Trackmania. The organisation also has a large roster of content creators.
The space, which was previously a warehouse, will feature a modular layout, with spaces for each of its operating companies. According to a release, all spaces are designed to be modular and moveable, depending on the requirements for a specific activation or event.
For example, G1’s South By Southwest activations will use office spaces that will be moved outside of the building.
The price tag for the facility was not revealed, but a release stated it was a ‘multi-million dollar’ build-out. The HQ will house Evolve PCs, Women’s Car Ball, and various media entities, G1 said.
Alongside the aforementioned purposes, the space will also include a large office space, player lounge, speakeasy, stage, podcast studio, team offices, and co-working spaces.
The new facility is expected to be finished before Q3 2024. It has alreay broken ground, G1 said.
In a release, Vaccaro Enterprises noted that its constituent companies “will continue to operate within the headquarters and will serve as event space for various activations and experiences.”
Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.
North American esports organisation Gamers First (G1) has revealed plans for a new multi-purpose headquarters facility, which will include studios, training facilities and an event space.
The new 25,500 square-foot facility is located in the East Congress district of Austin, Texas. The space will be used as a headquarters for G1’s esports operations, as well as other companies owned by G1 CEO and Co-Founder Kenny Vaccaro.
Co-founded by former NFL player Kenny Vaccaro, G1 is a North American esports organisation that fields competitive teams in Halo, Rocket League, and Trackmania. The organisation also has a large roster of content creators.
The space, which was previously a warehouse, will feature a modular layout, with spaces for each of its operating companies. According to a release, all spaces are designed to be modular and moveable, depending on the requirements for a specific activation or event.
For example, G1’s South By Southwest activations will use office spaces that will be moved outside of the building.
The price tag for the facility was not revealed, but a release stated it was a ‘multi-million dollar’ build-out. The HQ will house Evolve PCs, Women’s Car Ball, and various media entities, G1 said.
Alongside the aforementioned purposes, the space will also include a large office space, player lounge, speakeasy, stage, podcast studio, team offices, and co-working spaces.
The new facility is expected to be finished before Q3 2024. It has alreay broken ground, G1 said.
In a release, Vaccaro Enterprises noted that its constituent companies “will continue to operate within the headquarters and will serve as event space for various activations and experiences.”
Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.
North American esports organisation Sentinels has announced the creation of a subscription-based fan engagement platform calledSen Society.
The platform will host content created by the organisation as well as include special merchandise drops, digital offers and in-person activations. SEN Society membership costs $5 (£4) per month.
Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, one of the organisation’s VALORANT players, presented the new fan platform in a video shared on the Sen Society website. TenZ detailed that the fan club was conceived to provide more content to fans that might not be suitable for social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram. This includes bloopers and behind-the-scenes recordings.
There is also a chance to be in Sentinels content, fan graphic packs, opportunities to participate in Q&A sessions with players and staff, as well as other benefits.
Sentinels are widely known within the VALORANT esports ecosystem, with its roster winning 2021’s VCT Stage 2 Masters in Reykjavik, Iceland. Sentinels are a partner team for the VCT Americas in VALORANT. Apart from VALORANT, the organisation also fields teams in Halo and Apex Legends.
Prior to its rebranding in 2018, Sentinals competed in esports under Phoenix1.
The platform requires membership to access most features, including the shop. In the reveal video, TenZ did note that every member will have the opportunity to access exclusive merchandise items, with the first one being a set of pins for the first fans that become members on the platform. The organisation did not mention any future merchandise drops.
Every member will get a physical membership card that allows for merchandise discounts for in-person sales at events and access to meet and greets at certain events. More perks of the membership card will be announced soon.
The launch of SEN Society comes shortly after Sentinels secured a partnership with Influencer-owned North American custom PC company Starforge Systems.
Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.
North American esports organisation Sentinels has announced the creation of a subscription-based fan engagement platform calledSen Society.
The platform will host content created by the organisation as well as include special merchandise drops, digital offers and in-person activations. SEN Society membership costs $5 (£4) per month.
Tyson ‘TenZ’ Ngo, one of the organisation’s VALORANT players, presented the new fan platform in a video shared on the Sen Society website. TenZ detailed that the fan club was conceived to provide more content to fans that might not be suitable for social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram. This includes bloopers and behind-the-scenes recordings.
There is also a chance to be in Sentinels content, fan graphic packs, opportunities to participate in Q&A sessions with players and staff, as well as other benefits.
Sentinels are widely known within the VALORANT esports ecosystem, with its roster winning 2021’s VCT Stage 2 Masters in Reykjavik, Iceland. Sentinels are a partner team for the VCT Americas in VALORANT. Apart from VALORANT, the organisation also fields teams in Halo and Apex Legends.
Prior to its rebranding in 2018, Sentinals competed in esports under Phoenix1.
The platform requires membership to access most features, including the shop. In the reveal video, TenZ did note that every member will have the opportunity to access exclusive merchandise items, with the first one being a set of pins for the first fans that become members on the platform. The organisation did not mention any future merchandise drops.
Every member will get a physical membership card that allows for merchandise discounts for in-person sales at events and access to meet and greets at certain events. More perks of the membership card will be announced soon.
The launch of SEN Society comes shortly after Sentinels secured a partnership with Influencer-owned North American custom PC company Starforge Systems.
Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.
Esports festival and tournament organiser DreamHack has unveiled its slate of esports events taking place at DreamHack Dallas in June.
DreamHack Dallas will feature CS:GO’s ESL Impact Dallas Finals and Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023 events, as well as a Halo Invitational and Rocket Clash, an all-women Rocket League tournament. The tournaments will take place between June 2nd and June 4th, 2023.
DreamHack Dallas is the latest event in the DreamHack gaming and esports ‘festival’ circuit. Set to take place in Dallas, Texas in June, the event will host a large-scale public LAN party, cosplay contests, arcade cabinet competitions and more. There will also be tournaments in fighting games, collegiate and women’s Rocket League, as well as a chance for visitors to try out Counter-Strike 2.
The IEM Dallas will see 16 top CS:GO teams compete for a total of $250,000 (~£200,000) and a chance to qualify for IEM Cologne 2023. In addition, a win will count towards the Intel Grand Slam race, which recently restarted following FaZe Clan’s victory.
For Halo fans, DreamHack will host one of two Halo Championship Series Global Invitationals, a tournament that will see 16 top teams from four regions compete for a $125,000 (~100,000) prize pool.
The eight best women’s CS:GO teams will also compete at the ESL Impact Dallas Finals, a $123,000 (~£99,000) tournament whose winner will be crowned the champion of ESL Impact Season 3.
Another large prize pool is reserved for Fortnite. The $250,000 (~£200,000) tournament is open to all interested ticket holders and will be similar to the DreamHack San Diego Fortnite tournament. The best-placed teams will get the chance to participate in the Gamers8 tournament in Saudi Arabia later this year.
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.
Esports festival and tournament organiser DreamHack has unveiled its slate of esports events taking place at DreamHack Dallas in June.
DreamHack Dallas will feature CS:GO’s ESL Impact Dallas Finals and Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023 events, as well as a Halo Invitational and Rocket Clash, an all-women Rocket League tournament. The tournaments will take place between June 2nd and June 4th, 2023.
DreamHack Dallas is the latest event in the DreamHack gaming and esports ‘festival’ circuit. Set to take place in Dallas, Texas in June, the event will host a large-scale public LAN party, cosplay contests, arcade cabinet competitions and more. There will also be tournaments in fighting games, collegiate and women’s Rocket League, as well as a chance for visitors to try out Counter-Strike 2.
The IEM Dallas will see 16 top CS:GO teams compete for a total of $250,000 (~£200,000) and a chance to qualify for IEM Cologne 2023. In addition, a win will count towards the Intel Grand Slam race, which recently restarted following FaZe Clan’s victory.
For Halo fans, DreamHack will host one of two Halo Championship Series Global Invitationals, a tournament that will see 16 top teams from four regions compete for a $125,000 (~100,000) prize pool.
The eight best women’s CS:GO teams will also compete at the ESL Impact Dallas Finals, a $123,000 (~£99,000) tournament whose winner will be crowned the champion of ESL Impact Season 3.
Another large prize pool is reserved for Fortnite. The $250,000 (~£200,000) tournament is open to all interested ticket holders and will be similar to the DreamHack San Diego Fortnite tournament. The best-placed teams will get the chance to participate in the Gamers8 tournament in Saudi Arabia later this year.
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.
