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The grand final of the 2022 Call of Duty League Championship, which concluded on Sunday, had the highest peak viewership for the tournament in two years. Over 275,000 people were recorded as having watched the Los Angeles Thieves defeat the defending champions, Atlanta FaZe, to clinch their first championship title.
The competition, which took place between August 4 and August 7, was heavily criticized by players and viewers concerning Vanguard for the most part of the year. However, they turned up in their numbers to be a part of the top event at the end of the season.
This led to the viewership of the grand final surpassing the season-long viewership count with a peak viewership of around 275,244 views. This is the largest since 2020 and much higher than the 150,000 viewers attained in Major 1 and Major 4.
The notable 2020 high viewership was attained when over 330,000 fans watched Dallas Empire (now OpTic Texas) triumph over FaZe in the CDL’s inaugural season championship. The 2021 Call of Duty Championship brought in slightly lower views, reaching just below 230k peak viewership. Another impressive year was 2018 when the championship peak viewership was at 324,000.
The entire gaming weekend was a notable one for the Call of Duty League Championship, where all five matches had over 150,000 viewers. OpTic Texas snagged three of the top five. The team was matched up with the Seattle Surge for the elimination finals, and at its peak, the match brought in over 190,000 viewers.
Another noteworthy occurrence at the CDL Championship was LA Thieves successfully pulling off a switch in their fortune this season.
The franchise won the championship over Atlanta FaZe with a dominant 5-2 victory on Sunday. The match was led by four players: Kenneth “Kenny” Williams, who was named MVP of the game; Dylan “Envoy” Hannon; Zack “Drazah” Jordan; and Sam “Octane” Larew. The win was the players’ first world championship. Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag – the owner of the team, who previously played for OpTic Gaming professionally – also got his first world championship. The franchise won the New York Major title last month; hence, the CDL Champs 2022 win is their second consecutive victory in a major tournament.
The CoD League season has wrapped up, and the series is seemingly taking 2023 off. Regardless, there is still the expansive multiplayer offering as well as a global campaign, gameplay changes, and new compact mechanics to look forward to. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is also gearing up for release. The launch will continue the tradition of COD titles being released in the last quarter of the year. The title will be released on October 28 across Xbox One, Xbox Series X & S, PlayStation 5 & 4, Steam, and Battle.Net.
