Call of Duty League’s 2021 season started with a bang last weekend with online only matches aired on YouTube as a result of continued pandemic operating tactics.

Activision Blizzard Esports has reported viewership gains from the opening week of the 2021 season, with Optic Chicago headlining the most popular match.

According to Nielsen figures, YouTube earned an average of 118K viewers for the Optic Chicago-Atlanta Faze match on Sunday, making it the most-watched regular season CDL match. The match also peaked at 131K viewers.

Brandon Snow, ABE CEO, noted that the Optic-Faze match was in primetime, a window that the league will be putting more focus on in 2021. CDL also added 120K new subscribers to its YouTube channel since the season started.

Snow mentioned: “We’re super bullish on where this business and this sport is going to go, the game Call of Duty and its fanbase, and the new formats we have this season in CDL – when you add them up, we’re super optimistic, but you want to see the numbers first. We knew we had a lot of things lining up well, and it’s good to see it work.”

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