Worried you're the only person watching pro gaming online? Don't be.
Major League Gaming announced today that 2011 has been a banner year for the network, reaching over 3.6 million unique viewers worldwide this year. Those numbers, according to Nielsen, show that MLG has more viewers in its target demographic — 18-24 year-old men — than many competing cable networks. “Our LIVE streams of the Pro Circuit National Championships garnered more 18-24 male viewers than Comedy Central, MTV, TBS, and FX draw in an average quarter hour and nearly as many as Adult Swim.” says MLG CEO Sundance DiGiovanni.
Though E-Sports haven't had huge success on television, that hasn't stopped slowed the league down: Most viewers tune into events live via online streaming services like the on MLG.tv. The MLG six-week "Pro-Circuit" torunament circuit averaged over 600,000 thousand online viewers per event; a 225 percent increase from 2010.
If all of those numbers seem too confusing and technical, then you should check out this little infographic, which has graphs and meters for the more visually-minded among us. No matter how you look at it, though, the statistics point to one simple fact: E-Sports are more popular than ever.
