YouTube paid a pretty penny to have exclusive display rights for the ESL Pro League, an elite collection of competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players, but numbers show the move may not be paying off. The site esportsranks reports that viewership on Pro League matches has declined compared to previous years when the league played on Twitch. This exclusivity and subsequent drop in viewers is bad news for brands that count on players to act as gaming influencers.
YouTube Gaming vs Twitch, why switching matters
It comes down to popularity in the gaming industry. We’ve talked about it before, but Twitch is the dominant platform when it comes to esports. Twitch boasts about 15 million daily active users with about 106 minutes of streaming watched per person per day.
In the past 90 days, Sideqik shows ESL Counter-Strike has garnered an average of 420 engagements. The channel has a reach of more than 622,000 on each of its videos. Video impressions ranged from nearly 6,000 on qualifier matches, and as few as 150 on early morning matches.
Saved videos from the Pro League’s Twitch account have nearly 5,000 views since broadcast. It’s not immediately clear how many viewers watched live, but from the comment box, it seems like a lot.
What does this mean for influencers?
Exclusivity may be great for YouTube, but for brands looking to reach the biggest audience, it’s best to stay diversified. Like any investment, your influencer pool should be varied and far-reaching in terms of impressions. It doesn’t matter how many of your fans like Counter-Strike if they just aren’t coming to YouTube!
Sideqik helps brands better identify influencers across a wide variety of platforms. Don’t get stuck investing in a stream that isn’t paying off. A quick peruse of Sideqik’s Discover tool shows many gaming influencers with a large number of views on both Twitch and YouTube.
If you want to make sure you’re finding the right influencers on the right platform, contact Sideqik today.
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