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StarCraft 2 is a title that’s sustained an esports scene with sparse new releases for content material, surviving as an esports mainstay with out the necessity for brand spanking new instalments of the sport. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped individuals from asking if StarCraft 2 is useless. From extra competitors in esports to the affect of Blizzard shifting on, there are a variety of causes to assume Starcraft 2 isn’t at its healthiest.
Is Starcraft 2 Useless?
For a lot of, StarCraft 2 is perhaps a useless sport due to its lack of help from builders altogether. Nevertheless, this can be a title that has a formidable aggressive neighborhood, one which doesn’t solely want new content material to maintain the sport related. The best StarCraft 2 players are nonetheless discovering new methods to innovate throughout the title. Is that this sufficient although, or is StarCraft 2 useless?
StarCraft 2 may need been out since 2010, but it surely nonetheless maintains common tournaments and an lively participant base that retains queue occasions low. Nevertheless, with Blizzard shutting down help for the title, is it honest to name it a useless sport? By way of esports, that may be a tough promote. There are a great deal of StarCraft 2 tournaments usually being held. Though, a have a look at their viewing numbers and the way the construction of tournaments has modified can higher illustrate the sport’s issues.
StarCraft 2 Tournaments – Are They Slowing Down?
For those who’re asking ‘is StarCraft 2 useless?’ then a terrific place to begin is trying on the tournaments. The aggressive calendar might have regarded a bit of busier just a few years in the past, however the title undoubtedly nonetheless has a good roster of occasions. In 2024, Starcraft 2 will return to IEM Katowice with a 4 day event and $500,000 prize pool. ESL are one of many largest event organizers on this planet – in the event that they think about the sport it’s possible there’s the viewers to again it up.
The sport’s prize swimming pools have by no means reached the heights of Dota 2 but it surely’s laborious to argue that StarCraft 2 nonetheless doesn’t have sufficient to supply. The high-level occasions nonetheless usher in prizes that rise above a variety of video games. Nevertheless, there’s one metric the place StarCraft 2 tournaments have downturned a bit. By way of their whole occasions throughout all tiers of competitors, issues have slowed down because the sport’s peak.
That is much less an indication that StarCraft 2 is useless is than it is perhaps heading that means ultimately. With the introduction of new games RTS games like Stormgate in 2024, we may even see an extra discount within the quantity of SC2 tournaments. That is pure for a sport with out lively improvement, but it surely does level towards StarCraft being handed its stage of development as an esport.
Viewing Numbers for StarCraft 2
Viewing numbers for an esport generally is a good strategy to choose how properly it’s doing when it comes to reputation. Viewership numbers for StarCraft 2 won’t ever have been fairly on the extent as some titles, however the sport has pulled in a good viewership for many large tournaments. The newest highest-level event was ESL SC2 Grasp 2023 Winter. This yr, that event pulled in 35,618 viewers at its peak and a mean viewership of 19,198.
That is down a bit of from the likes of IEM Katowice 2022 however there’s nonetheless an viewers for these sorts of tournaments.
Picture credit score: ESL
If we glance again additional, the 2020 and 2019 IEM occasions present stronger numbers too. 2020 noticed peak viewers of 71,794 and a mean viewer of 31,489. 2019 had figures of 80,763 on the perk and 40,622 on common. We will see that the viewing figures for StarCraft 2 aren’t precisely a straight pattern line down. Whereas essentially the most recent tournament’s figures are disappointing in comparison with earlier ones, the sport’s had years with fewer viewers prior to now with out that changing into an ongoing pattern. The viewing figures are nonetheless inside a good vary of what’s regular for the sport. If this drop-off continues for an additional few years although, that might be a warning signal.
Some years will naturally have extra hype going into them than others. Nevertheless, StarCraft 2’s viewing numbers are nonetheless fairly good. Particularly for a sport that primarily lives on the hype of its neighborhood for the time being.
Will StarCraft 2 Regain Recognition?
It’s tough to say SC2 is dying, but it surely does have some clear issues. It isn’t being supported by the developer of the sport and little work will go into increasing it. This mainly places all the things as much as the neighborhood. It’s possible present followers will have the ability to hold completive StarCraft related for fairly some time to return.
Plainly whereas Starcraft has been on the high of the RTS esports scene for a while, new video games like Stormgate are set to take over.
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