Call of Duty League Major 1 viewership smashes records as OpTic Texas beat Atlanta FaZe

Major 1 of the 2022 Call of Duty League season, hosted by OpTic Texas, has smashed CDL viewership records as thousands tuned in to watch the home team dominate their competition.

From March 3-6, CDL Major 1 gave fans and players their first Call of Duty LAN event since CoD Champs in August 2021, and the event certainly delivered. OpTic Texas beat Atlanta FaZe 5-2 in the grand final, after also batting off competition from the likes of London Royal Ravens and Toronto Ultra, playing almost flawless CoD throughout the weekend. It was OpTic’s first Major win since CWL Vegas 2019 and their fans showed out in full force — both in the arena and online, as stats from the event show.

According to Esports Charts, Major 1 reached a peak viewership of 157,421, giving it the highest peak viewership of any regular-season event since the Call of Duty League first launched in 2020.

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Only the Call of Duty Championship in 2020 and 2021 eclipse this figure, with the next highest regular-season event — Stage 3 Major 2021 — clocking in at around 135k peak viewers. Much of that viewership came from OpTic and FaZe, who dominated the chart for most viewed matches, as well as third-placed London Royal Ravens.

The next test is if this level of viewership can be maintained or even progress throughout the season. While there has been some backlash to Vanguard since it launched in 2021, there’s obviously a solid fanbase that continues to grow for the esport. There is often a dip in viewership as the season progresses, but if it continues to beat out figures from 2020 and 2021, the league will have a good idea of where it’s at heading ahead of Modern Warfare 2 — which is rumored to have a two-year cycle.