Following the recent Intel World Open event, the official competitive season for Rocket League seems to have concluded nicely. Indeed, it’s now the perfect time to sit back and review the past year. Read on as we carry this out for the Year of Competitive Rocket League 2020/21.
Let’s Talk About The Format Change
Back in 2019, a major change happened to competitive Rocket League.
Accordingly, back in May of that year, Psyonix was acquired by Epic Games. For those unaware, Epic Games is the developer behind the massively popular battle royale of Fortnite.
Once on board, Epic Games decided to bring about a change of format which the community is still discussing. Playing a major component to this past year, we have to mention it first. Here’s an exerpt from our ‘State of the Community’ on this topic a week ago:
Originally framed around league play, culminating in regional playoffs and world championships; that no longer stood. Instead, RLCS in its tenth season – ‘RLCS Season X’ would consist of one long event consisting of three splits in the fall, spring and winter.
Cut up into multiple regions, the season planned to end by determining a few competitors from each region. Specifically, the top 16 teams in the world would then compete at a $1,000,000 event! Do note, however, that such an awesome event did not take place this year due to health restrictions.
Credits: Esportsguide
With that being said, time to go over the event timeline this past year.
Fact Sheet – The Best Rocket League Esports Events Over the Year
Do note, that all viewership statistics were taken from the publically available statistics at Esports Charts.
RLCS Season X – Fall: EU Major – October 2020
Since August of last year, one of the first events greeting the community back into the scene were the Fall Majors.
With $100,000 on the line, Psyonix kicked off the season on a strong note especially when considering the viewership.
Now sitting as the sixth most viewed Rocket League event ever, it was clear that hopes were high heading into this new season:
- Peak Viewers – 203,390
- Average Viewers – 113,564
Such statistics also gave confidence to this new format – it seems that more regular Majors in one continuous season could work.
RLCS Season X – Fall: NA Major – October 2020 – Competitive Rocket League 2020/21
However, the successes of the European event were only less compared to the NA region.
With both these two regions fighting for dominance, the Fall NA Major managed to gain incredible viewership. Specifically, the event now sits as the third most viewed event of all time for RL:
- Peak Viewers – 232,777
- Average Viewers – 118,924
I’ll say it once again, hopes were high heading into the Winter events a few months later.
RLCS Season X – Winter EU Major – February 2021
It was here that the true test for the format would lie. Indeed, after 3 months since the last event, would the viewership remain comparable at all?
Luckily, the answer in this regard was a ‘yes’ thanks to the performance from the events. Here, we can talk about the Winter EU Major which sits as the 4th most viewed event for competitive RL:
- Peak Viewers – 225,386
- Average Viewers – 114,925
With that out of the way, Psyonix was determined to maintain the viewership into the Spring.
RLCS Season X – Spring NA Major – May 2021
Yet, this is where viewership dipped slightly to less than 200,000 and would continue to do so for the remainder of the season. Of course, these numbers are still great, they just could be better:
- Peak Viewers – 199,917
- Average Viewers – 147,181
Do note that it was also at this point in time that Psyonix made public the fact that a World Championship where all the best teams from each region would compete would not be taking place this year.
RLCS Season X North American Championship – June 2021 – Competitive Rocket League 2020/21
Acting as the top event for one of the largewr regions, hopes were high. However, perhaps due to the fact that the event was held online, the $400,000 prize pool failed to generate over 200,000 peak viewers:
- Peak Viewers – 192,523
- Average Viewers – 136,818
Would Europe be any better?
RLCS Season X European Championship – June 2021
Sadly not. For whatever reason, Psyonix failed to generate the enthusiasm which was present earlier in the season when it was needed most – with the biggest prize pools and stakes. Take a look for yourself:
- Peak Viewers – 178,272
- Average Viewers – 109,415
Indeed, the season could have ended on a higher note.
Intel World Open – July 2021
As an honorable mention, The Intel World Open was held ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics as a form of World Cup. With a shared prize of $500,000, it was an awesome opportunity for exposure.
Unfortunately no, we have no available numbers behind the viewership of this final event.
Competitive Rocket League 2020/21 – Fixing Viewership
As you can imagine, our only criticism is behind the fact that viewership fell off at the most important events – which doesn’t make much sense.
Indeed, Psyonix needs to push for offline events once again and try to spice things up. Otherwise, perhaps another season could offer different results.
Regardless, Rocket League continues to have massive potential.
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