GotFrag eSports

With 270,000 Male 12-34 viewers, MLG�s live online broadcast beats average primetime audiences in coveted youth male demo on top cable nets and many cable broadcasts of major sporting events. Numbers likely to double over next 21 days as viewers come to MLGPro.com to watch broadcast coverage on-demand.

NEW YORK CITY�JUNE 24, 2008 � Major League Gaming, the professional video game league, today announced viewership results from its second 2008 Pro Circuit Event in San Diego, held June 13-15. The live online broadcast of MLG�s competition drew a Male 12-34 audience comparable to or larger than many traditional male and youth-focused cable networks and many major cable sporting events. Moreover, viewers watched for an average of 81 minutes, revealing that audience wasn�t just sizeable, it was also deeply engaged.

Viewership of the TV-quality broadcast, with live commentary and graphics, doubled from the debut broadcast at the Meadowlands less than two months ago:

* 270,000 total unique Male 12-34 viewers
* 81 minutes average viewing time per viewer
* 1.4 million video streams
* 360,000 hours of video consumed

Historical viewer data from MLG�s first Pro Circuit stop at the Meadowlands suggest that the broadcast streams will likely double in the coming weeks as fans flock to MLGPro.com to watch the competition coverage on-demand.

�For our fans, MLGPro.com is the cable network of pro gaming,� said Matthew Bromberg, president and CEO of Major League Gaming. �We were thrilled with our TV show�s performance last year on G4, but our online broadcast just generated 7 times G4�s average primetime audience in the demo. Moreover, our fans not only watch our sport online, they also now play more than 400,000 online matches a month with us. The bottom line is that we are delivering our largest audience ever to partners like Dr Pepper, Old Spice, Stride, HP Blackbird 002, GameStop, Panasonic, US Army, Xbox 360, Bungie and Ubisoft.�

About Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming is North America�s first professional videogame league, and its only sanctioning body for pro gaming. MLG operates the multi-city MLG Pro Circuit, presented by GameStop and powered by Xbox 360; produces compelling competitions for national television, broadband and mobile distribution; and exclusively represents the best gamers in the world. It also operates a thriving online community and online tournaments for millions of gamers at MLGPro.com. MLG, founded in 2002, is based in New York City and is privately held.

User Comments

MLG needs 1.6. It would kill the CGS.

I roll kids in Missile Command.

Good Stuff

are they talking about the gftv stream on the front page or..

#LANbeforeTIME ~~ dvt is teh n008135t (>-__-)>: dont talk to me anymore. *sadface**

Why doesn't CGS show us what they got? Yeah, kthx MLG wins.

Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.

1.6 pleaseeee

#zoi ----- est. June 2003.

gj MLG!

- e-Sports Broadcaster -

wow, that's a lot of viewers

LoL DuDe LoL

#3

I believe they're talking about the combined total of the Halo 3, R6V2, GoW & WoW streams. I might be mistaken though.

good for gaming.

THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

Counter-Strike can and never will survive if we try to make it on TV. I mean sure more money will be pumped into it but kids don't really like to sit down and watch e-sports at the TV. They want to be on vent or have some form of communication with their friends (most people do not have tons of friends who live walking distance from their house). That is what gaming is all about. Doing it with other people!

bragging about broadcasting world of warcraft online?

:|

add 1.6 and you've come full circle. Lets go!

Everything I'm not made me everything I am.

I really cannot believe this many people tuned in to watch WoW Arena, it is really boring to spectate but I've heard its not as bad actually playing it. Kind of amazing, Hope Gotfrag can talk MLG into picking up a real competitive game like CS 1.6.

I think CGS and other companies in the past are not too smart when trying to mainstream e-sports on television. Why do we need it on a TV Channel? This day and age it seems its easier to watch something via stream online than go watch it on the TV. This MLG San Diego cast kind of prooves it to be true. Make an online TV station with different channels for different games or something.

This comment was edited at 06/24/2008 8:22 AM

"I never thought I'd see hacker get bent over the table on d2, but I think it just happened" -jESUIT

CPL Winter 2005 grand finals had 2 HLTV's that both got capped at 28,000 so everyone else had to watch TSN live shoutcast...not saying we had 270,000 but there was a LOT of people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2B-0b5KkpA

280,000 MALE viewers, lol. No female viewers Aww, just another sausage fest :(

if mlg picks up 1.6 the CGS is in maaaaaaajor trouble

#16 they already are in trouble :D

Every Villain is Lemons

i turned the stream on for gotfrag as i like to support the site but didnt watch more than one game as i found wow very boring and even with the shoutcasting it was hard to follow what was going on apart from the health bars

If MLG picked up 1.6 I would not be leaving my house =(

Go Read a Book =)

HOLY ****

This proves E-sports works!!!!

1.6 plz!!!

IHSV

gratz ;-)

GoGoGo MLG & 1.6

that is bs, the stream opened when you went to gotfrag. i tried watching it but it was just so boring, even as a WoW player i couldn't watch its just horrible for spectating~ dont count viewers who were forced to open the stream for a second and then close it hEh

is this number biased based on the fact that everyone who joined gotfrag was forced to stream this nerdom

i like dirt

If this was counter-strike all of you would not be mentioning that fact. ;)

#17 No it's not =)

QUOTE:
is this number biased based on the fact that everyone who joined gotfrag was forced to stream this nerdom

yes

you were basically forced to watch the broadcast on nearly every page on gotfrag whether you liked it or not

just because some random video of a guy clapping his hands topped off with a talking donkey edited in windows movie maker that magically got 60,000,000 views online at youtube that "rivals" the super bowl doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing

why should world of warcraft be any different? it has no place in esports.

QUOTE:
If this was counter-strike all of you would not be mentioning that fact. ;)

cs 1.6 is nowhere near the level of wow in terms of player traffic obviously. we all love our 1.6 but it's no wow. 270,000 uniques for a 1.6 match (even if the broadcast is shoved down your throat with no warning)?

This comment was edited at 06/24/2008 8:42 PM

Dunno if you guys realize but a majority of the broadcast viewers were probably for halo. VOD has pulled massive halo numbers for over last 2 years. Still im sure wow contributed quite a bit but no where near the halo viewer base.

#28
Did you look at the number of new accounts who posted in that massive WOW thread during the event?

do people realize that about 11 million players play WoW?

I really dont think 1.6 has that kind of audience to produce the same thing WoW does, because every community in WoW (ASIAN, EUROPEAN, AMERICAN) was watching the stream because WoW is like the NBA in a way, individual marketing overvalues team marketing.. Nihilum (Mous Sports) vs Frag Dominant finals had a big thing to do with it, that was the first ever Europe vs American WoW anything competition in the history of the game...

europe and american wow communities always fight each other in every aspect of the game, its a big deal especially to the 10%~ of the wow community that's hardcore at the game.

#battlegroup9 - battlegroup9.com

Those numbers are frickin ridiculous.

GG GFTV

Coverage Director - GotFrag.com

I didn't say 1.6 could match that... All I stated was that for whatever reason 1.6 did have that kind of viewers you would not be saying "that is bs, the stream opened when you went to gotfrag."

huh watching what?

Your friendly neighbourhood Nagelbergman.

I wonder just how long it'll take before internet video broadcast fully replaces television broadcast (because it is going to happen, sooner or later). One decade? Two decades?

The technology still has a ways to, but it's getting there.

lol at 1.6 comments
1.6 is an old, outdated game. Sorry.
Sure it's fun but no gaming company wants to back a game that a $200 computer will run. Why buy that $500-800, amazing video card when a 128mb, $50 will do?

Then again this is the gotfrag, which is made up of 90% 1.6 players talking about all these tournies need to add 1.6, and how 1.6 is the greatest game ever.

This isn't 2004 anymore. Time to move on.

This comment was edited at 06/25/2008 9:53 AM

#28, you are wrong, a majority of those numbers were gftv and WoW spectators.

The stream was not forced on every page of gotfrag, only the front page and wow section.

This comment was edited at 06/25/2008 2:04 PM

Marc Turner | Editor in Chief | www.GotFrag.com | #gotfrag

I can see the MLG totally wiping out the CGS if they add either 1.6 or source (granted they don't destroy either game).

lawl

#35

You're right, its not 2004, its 2008 and Counter-Strike 1.6 is still the most played STEAM game out there-look at the CGS players who are currently drafted for the US, and look at how many of them were originally CS1.6 professional players, then came 2007 and they switched to Source.

CSS is the same old steaming pile of *crap* it use to be and until it proves it otherwise, it will always be that game where you could play for 4 years, learn everything about the game, and still get owned by a kid whos mashing on the keyboard who just got the game.

#35 since you mentioned it that way, wasn't source out back in 04 too? I guess thats outdated and even after all these years it's still bad and a lot of people still can't handle the graphics.

MLG will add 1.6 sooner or later. They aren't dumb enough not to.

didnt some kid say there were 800,000? lol this is disappointing with all the WoW nerds there are out there.

one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six one point six

This comment was edited at 06/27/2008 12:27 AM

MYM:"[Counter-Strike Source is]a game that we no longer consider a professional game with a future".

Adding 1.6 would be a waste of time and money. The company is trying to make money not please the 20 kids that still play 1.6.

The only reason this event pulled in the numbers was because of World of Warcraft. With the help of Blizzard the event got major advertisement to the 11 million people that play the game. No CS game will ever come close to matching WoW numbers... ever.

Who cares if CS isn't matching WoW numbers? Its not like its going to hurt them to add it they might as well. With WoW they pull in the large population the game has add CS to your events as well and you pull in the large amount of FPS players as well.

That and if they manage to get players to leave CGS to play 1.6 in the MLG tournies I think the US aduience would increase a lot with American teams like 3D/col/Rival back.

WoW + CS 1.6 + Halo + SC2 (when it comes out) = every major gaming audience. Smartest choices they could do imo.

These numbers are also MLG as a whole + forced stream front page. Not just WoW.

This comment was edited at 06/29/2008 11:50 AM

Word the to the oblivious: It's going to be 10x more likely MLG will add SC2 when it releases(considering WoW is a blizzard title) than 1.6 which has had years to try to get on with MLG and still has yet to do it.

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World of Warcraft: MLG SD with record 270,000 viewers

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