On the night of April 21, Valve released a global patch 7.33 for Dota 2. It introduced a huge number of changes to the game and caused great excitement in the community. Some popular streamers held many-hour marathons in anticipation of the update, and after its release, they analyzed the patch on air for a long time. Streams Charts has calculated the impact this has had on the popularity of the Dota 2 category on Twitch.
The Dota 2 patch 7.33 included many significant changes: the playing field was increased by 40%; new runes and artifacts, new mini-bosses, portals, and the second Roshan's lair were added. Many heroes were completely or partially redesigned. The update was so extensive that some professional players frankly called it "the release of Dota 3". If you're interested in the details, you can read them on the official website of the game.
How Has the Dota 2 Category on Twitch Changed After the Patch?
The day before the release of patch 7.33, Dota 2 saw 171.9K Peak Viewers on Twitch. It was recorded during OG's game against Team Liquid at DreamLeague Season 19. This was the last match of the game day, and after it was over, the number of viewers in the category started to drop rapidly.
At midnight, the situation changed: the patch came out and the audience of the section increased again. The Peak Viewers number at the time of the update's release grew to 144.4K PV. This audience activity lasted until about 2 A.M., after which the outflow of people began again due to the very late time for Europe and the large amount of new information contained in the patch, viewers decided to postpone reviewing it until the morning.
The category audience kept decreasing until 4 A.M., but then the number of viewers began to grow fast. We have compared the periods from 4 A.M. to 11 A.M. on the days before and after the patch to track the dynamics.
On April 20, at 4 A.M., Dota 2 reached 17K PV, while at the same hour on April 21, after the patch was released, this number rose to 49.4K PV. In other words, the audience increased almost threefold. At the same time, the Peak Channels number rose from 447 to 695 during the same hour. All of this suggests that more viewers and streamers joined the game category on Twitch after the patch was released.
As for the most popular streamers who broadcast in the first hours after the patch's release (between midnight and 11 a.m.), Nix became the leader. His channel reached 41.2K PV. NS is in second place with 29.9K PV. Swedish streamer Gorgc is in third place with 26.2K PV. More than half of the Top 10 positions are taken by Russian streamers.
It is clear that the new global patch will greatly increase the audience reach of the game's category on Twitch. However, analysts and pro players themselves still speak with restraint — the developers have to fix a lot of bugs and improve the balance. In addition, the update was released just a few days before the start of the ESL One Berlin Major 2023, which greatly complicated the preparation of the tournament participants. On the other hand, they are all under equal conditions.
