The nascent Call of Duty League returns this weekend with chance to find crossover appeal
The timing was something Activision never could have accounted for: The same week the world effectively shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic last month, the publisher launched “Call of Duty: Warzone,” a free-to-play battle royale game in one of the most popular video game series of all time.
In less than 10 days, the game surpassed than 30 million players. NBA and NFL stars were streaming themselves playing on Twitch. Esports organizations like FaZe Clan were hosting celebrity tournaments. “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” the base game of which Warzone is a part, has been the second most popular game on Twitch in the last 30 days behind only perennial No. 1 “League of Legends.” Call of Duty, the most popular first-person shooter in history, has never been more popular.
“We did kind of anticipate that because of the quarantine, because these major sports leagues and events are being canceled, and music festivals and concerts, we knew that other people are going to turn to other forms of entertainment,” said Darren Yan, vice president of talent for FaZe. “And mostly it’s going to be online.”
It all could potentially change the outlook of the nascent Call of Duty League. The league, which is in its inaugural season, returns from a monthlong hiatus this weekend with a series of 13 online matches stretching from Friday through Sunday. Eight of the league’s 12 teams, each representing a different city or state, will be in action with each gamer playing from his own home.
The Florida Mutineers, operated by Boca Raton’s Misfits Gaming, will face the Toronto Ultra on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
So far, the Call of Duty League (CDL) has only been a modest ratings success, though. CDL, which streams live matches exclusively on YouTube rather than Twitch, debuted with a peak audience of 102,000 viewers for its inaugural weekend in January. In February, the peak audience ticked up slightly to 111,000 before it plummeted to just more than 66,000 for its lone weekend in March before the coronavirus outbreak forced the league to temporarily halt play while it figured out ways to hold matches online.
Still, there isn’t a competitive game which has been as popular for as long as the Call of Duty series. Across nearly two decades and more than 15 main titles, the series has sold more than 300 million copies. It ranks right with the likes of the Super Mario and Pokemon series to make Call of Duty one of the most popular video game series ever with a mainstream audience.
The CDL returns to action Friday in a far different world than the one it left behind last month. Every major American sports league is on hiatus with no clear path to returning. The NCAA canceled all its spring sports. Even internationally, only a handful of traditional sports are still in action.
Esports has managed to continue, and video games have thrived. The League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends European Championship were the first to go exclusively online, then the Overwatch League (OWL) followed suit a week later in March. Twitch’s average viewership has nearly doubled since January, and video game sales are up about 65 percent from this time last year.
The CDL, perhaps the league best positioned for a crossover audience because of the core game’s mainstream appeal, could be a beneficiary.
“They should see some decent viewership online. I think the viewership has been — I would call it — OK, to date. When you compare it to some of the bigger esports out there, it hasn’t really shown the big numbers outside of the big matches,” said Manny Anekal, an esports consultant from South Florida. “When it goes to digital only, I think the audience is going to be starved for some content, so I think it should perform well digitally.”
Like the OWL, the CDL is owned by Activision Blizzard, so the two leagues share a similar model. When it debuted in 2018, the OWL was the first major esports league to tie its teams to geographic locations. The Florida Mayhem has represented the state since the first year and was scheduled to host its first “Homestand” last month at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables before the coronavirus forced its postponement.
“Overwatch” is popular, but nowhere near as popular as Call of Duty. By applying some of the OWL’s most innovative ideas to a massively popular mainstream game, the CDL stares down a breakout opportunity.
“It’s honestly just the net result of the situation, which is: We’re a sport and a game that’s well-known, and popular and people are going to be playing massive amounts of video games over the next months,” Misfits CEO Ben Spoont said. “We’re very humble about the fact that we’re going to provide a lot of entertainment for folks to consume, and we’re excited to do that for South Florida and having the Mayhem and the Mutineers represent them.”
