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MLG 2012 636% Viewership = Huge Huge Revenue Gains

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
MK9 might not have had as many numbers as Starcraft and League of Legends did, but to say we had nothing to do with this phenomenon is rather shallow and is disrespectful to those who made MLG Dallas a great success for MK9.

This is just the beginning, guys. And as long as we keep this up, it is only going to get better.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
This is just the beginning, guys. And as long as we keep this up, it is only going to get better.
My concern is that people think that by showing up to the tournament the numbers for viewership will automatically increase.. And then afterward, if it's announced that MK is no longer at MLG, then we get multiple large threads of damaging hate/complaint/flame/anti-MLG posts that burn bridges between the community and esports.

This is why I suggest 2 things:

1) Take a realistic look at the Twitch.tv numbers Karried posted for us: http://rexas.net/StreamCenter/live.php?tournamentID=6&showAll=true and consider that MK is a hugely exciting game that is deserving of far larger numbers than this.

2) We figure out how we can come together as a community to promote our high-level tournies to current non-viewers who might be interested, rather than just hardcore fans -- in order to grow audiences for this exciting game we all love.
 

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
My concern is that people think that by showing up to the tournament the numbers for viewership will automatically increase..
No, attending a tournament won't increase viewership. Promotion does.

So that said, I agree with your whole post, but I also don't agree with people saying that MK9 had nothing to do with the revenue increase for MLG. It baffles me as to why they'd say that. I know we're not nearly as popular as the big names in esports, but MK is only taking its first steps towards tournament life. Progress comes with time and effort.

The success of MLG Dallas brings me confidence that we will be featured at Columbus of next year.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
MK9 might not have had as many numbers as Starcraft and League of Legends did, but to say we had nothing to do with this phenomenon is rather shallow and is disrespectful to those who made MLG Dallas a great success for MK9.
How is it disrespectful or shallow to state the facts? Have you ever seen the average number of viewers for MK9 at MLG? I think we peaked, yes peaked, at around 3,000-4,000 for Dallas, not 100% certain though. But the average is more like around 1,000-2,000. When you compare that to the average numbers for the FPS's or SC, which is 20k+ and 300k+, it isn't even close.

Sundance and the other MLG guys have already said they make no money from the fighting games. But that he doesn't care he wants to give us a chance and it isn't about profiting off of the FGC.

What's disrespectful is to act like MK9 had ANYTHING to do with these massive numbers. It makes us look really bad if we attempt to lump ourselves in to this success that MLG has gained in just 2 years. When it has almost nothing to do with us. It may not be what you all want to hear, but the truth can be brutal sometimes.

I don't think this is something that's "brutal" anyway. We cannot delude ourselves into thinking MK9 has a big enough audience to where we factor in to these outrageous statistics. Of course MK9 adds to the total, but our chunk can't even be classified as such.

Fighting games, oddly enough, just aren't as spectator friendly as FPS's. As far as StarCraft, I have no idea why people watch that shit, lol.
 

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
How is it disrespectful or shallow to state the facts? Have you ever seen the average number of viewers for MK9 at MLG? I think we peaked, yes peaked, at around 3,000-4,000 for Dallas, not 100% certain though. But the average is more like around 1,000-2,000. When you compare that to the average numbers for the FPS's or SC, which is 20k+ and 300k+, it isn't even close.

Sundance and the other MLG guys have already said they make no money from the fighting games. But that he doesn't care he wants to give us a chance and it isn't about profiting off of the FGC.

What's disrespectful is to act like MK9 had ANYTHING to do with these massive numbers. It makes us look really bad if we attempt to lump ourselves in to this success that MLG has gained in just 2 years. When it has almost nothing to do with us. It may not be what you all want to hear, but the truth can be brutal sometimes.

I don't think this is something that's "brutal" anyway. We cannot delude ourselves into thinking MK9 has a big enough audience to where we factor in to these outrageous statistics. Of course MK9 adds to the total, but our chunk can't even be classified as such.

Fighting games, oddly enough, just aren't as spectator friendly as FPS's. As far as StarCraft, I have no idea why people watch that shit, lol.
Juggs, read my response to CrimsonShadow.
 

CRUM

Warrior
How is it disrespectful or shallow to state the facts? Have you ever seen the average number of viewers for MK9 at MLG? I think we peaked, yes peaked, at around 3,000-4,000 for Dallas, not 100% certain though. But the average is more like around 1,000-2,000. When you compare that to the average numbers for the FPS's or SC, which is 20k+ and 300k+, it isn't even close.

Sundance and the other MLG guys have already said they make no money from the fighting games. But that he doesn't care he wants to give us a chance and it isn't about profiting off of the FGC.

What's disrespectful is to act like MK9 had ANYTHING to do with these massive numbers. It makes us look really bad if we attempt to lump ourselves in to this success that MLG has gained in just 2 years. When it has almost nothing to do with us. It may not be what you all want to hear, but the truth can be brutal sometimes.

I don't think this is something that's "brutal" anyway. We cannot delude ourselves into thinking MK9 has a big enough audience to where we factor in to these outrageous statistics. Of course MK9 adds to the total, but our chunk can't even be classified as such.

Fighting games, oddly enough, just aren't as spectator friendly as FPS's. As far as StarCraft, I have no idea why people watch that shit, lol.
Can I get a direct quote where Sundance said he makes no money on fighting games?
 

Justice

Warrior
I see two things happening with MLG:

1) no one can deny that we gained more from being at MLG than the other way around. I'm not saying that we didn't have a significant effect on these numbers, but remember too that while Dallas was a huge success, there was another MLG event that was cancelled due to lack of entrants.

2) MLG season starts in March and Injustice drops in April. I predict that MK will be a placeholder for Injustice since they have to decide the lineup around now for next season. As so many around here are fond of saying, MLG is a business and they want to make their monies the same as everyone else. While I have no doubt that we'll be playing MK for years to come, realistically how long are people going to want to watch it? Much less pay to watch it?

And let's not forget the divisions in the FGC that already exist. Convincing die-hard Capcom players to watch MK (or any game not made by Capcom) is a hard sell. I'm sure that part of these numbers have to do with "MLG has teh fighters nao? Koo! Lets watch!" I'm curious to see how the numbers will fluctuate once its not such a novelty that MLG has fighters.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade or be negative about this. I'm happy for MK and us as a community. All I'm saying is that we've come this far but we still have a long way to go.
 
Just to give a rough idea, Twitch peaked at 3,283 and Own3d at like 700+ for Fighters. So, ball park that for MLG's website too, I doubt it's that much of an increase.

LoL peaked at 62k+ on Own3d, and 179,000+ on Twitch
Starcraft was peaking at 80k+

Yes, we had an impact, but, as a whole, no.
 
Can I get a direct quote where Sundance said he makes no money on fighting games?

Adam said it on Twitter, when everyone was all bitchy about MLG. He said it's not about profiting, he feels MK (Fighters) are great, and they want to help build their community because the gaming community help build MLG.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Adam said it on Twitter, when everyone was all bitchy about MLG. He said it's not about profiting, he feels MK (Fighters) are great, and they want to help build their community because the gaming community help build MLG.
Yeah he said it on twitter and I think someone else from MLG said it on a stream. I think JamesMK was on someones podcast and an MLG guy got on, I can't remember who exactly but this was back when James was having beef with them on twitter. I also remember Sundance saying something like it on cross counter live, not positive though.

All I know is I remember hearing it AND reading it, I just don't know the specifics or have a link. CRUM feel free to tweet at him or someone else from MLG and ask them.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
All I know is, the question is not "what happened this year", but more like "what can we do to make 2013 the biggest year ever for MK+Injustice viewership?"

I really think that these games are ridiculously exciting, and I'd be willing to take a stab at organizing people to spread the word. It's going to take some help, though :) Will need as many of you guys as possible.

So far I've turned two of my friends (non-players) on to watching MK events, and they both seem to think the experience is fantastic. I'm convinced that if more people know about what's going on, they'll be hooked. Just going to take some teamwork to get there.
 

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
For those who may have misinterpreted me, the reason I said it was disrespectful to exclude MK9's involvement from this huge success for MLG isn't because I suddenly believe that our community is dominant and we've had a large role in it. I'm saying that every game, popular or not, plays some part in their revenue. It isn't fair to say that any of them didn't, even if they did not generate all that many viewers when compared to other games.

You also may have missed where I pointed out how MK is just taking its first huge steps into the tournament circuit. As successful as we were at MLG Dallas, that is not a sign that our work is complete, merely that we've improved. It should serve as a beacon of motivation. The road still stretches out loooooong before us and it will take much time to travel it.

Also Juggs - about where Sundance supposedly claimed that MLG does not profit from including these fighters, I find that hard to believe. I'm no business expert here, so I could be wrong, but shouldn't benefits go both ways when it comes to situations like this? Why include games from which the sponsors will gain no financial benefit? Sheer generosity? If that is the case, we're very touched by the kindness, but in the world of business, that sounds too good to be true. A rule of equality is that everyone should stand to benefit.

Either way, judging by the impressive response MK got since we actually capped 96 players, as well as the fact that the fighters have cracked a couple thousand viewers (which is a huge step-up from the typical estimate of 100 I usually see in tournament streams), I'd be surprised if that wasn't a sign we're headed in the right direction. As CrimsonShadow stated, we do have a long way to go, and whether we succeed or not is up to our community. But saying we don't have anything to do with their success just seems harsh and could cause members to wonder if it's a cause that is even worth pursuing.

So yes, I am saying to be optimistic and persistent. Don't ignore the facts, of course, but realize that the power to cause change still lies within you and everyone else.

EDIT: Disregard the "supposedly claimed" part, I read the above posts.
 

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
https://twitter.com/MrAdamAp/status/269125362162728960

GG...but that's not the main point. It's about the community as they said before, and hopefully Injustice/MK make it back.
Did you miss this part of my above post?

EDIT: Disregard the "supposedly claimed" part, I read the above posts.
Thanks, though.

Look, I'm not saying to delude ourselves, but as someone who got to take part in this event, I'm just agitated that some people are so quick to point out how we're a miniscule community compared to the rest. I'm sure they all start out small and grow every time. I wasn't excluding us from that rule.
 
Did you miss this part of my above post?



Thanks, though.

Look, I'm not saying to delude ourselves, but as someone who got to take part in this event, I'm just agitated that some people are so quick to point out how we're a miniscule community compared to the rest. I'm sure they all start out small and grow every time. I wasn't excluding us from that rule.
That wasn't directed at you. It was a general fact presented, given to the topic we're discussing.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
All I know is, the question is not "what happened this year", but more like "what can we do to make 2013 the biggest year ever for MK+Injustice viewership?"

I really think that these games are ridiculously exciting, and I'd be willing to take a stab at organizing people to spread the word. It's going to take some help, though :) Will need as many of you guys as possible.

So far I've turned two of my friends (non-players) on to watching MK events, and they both seem to think the experience is fantastic. I'm convinced that if more people know about what's going on, they'll be hooked. Just going to take some teamwork to get there.
Indeed. I can see Injustice doing better than MK9 for MLG. First it needs to get added to MLG though. And considering that the fighting games don't turn MLG a profit, we're going to have to make an effort to promote it but also be understanding if they don't add fighting games altogether, let alone Injustice.
 
Indeed. I can see Injustice doing better than MK9 for MLG. First it needs to get added to MLG though. And considering that the fighting games don't turn MLG a profit, we're going to have to make an effort to promote it but also be understanding if they don't add fighting games altogether, let alone Injustice.
We should go balls deep in Sony. Everyone tweet Sony. Lol. But, I heard Sony/WB like MK, so, that's good.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
We should go balls deep in Sony. Everyone tweet Sony. Lol. But, I heard Sony/WB like MK, so, that's good.
Sony, WB, NRS, etc all the sponsors we can. But also promoting it so we can get better turnouts.

GamerBlake90 I understand your position on this. My point is that this is great news for MLG. But in regards to these statistics, MK9 isn't a big part of them, if one at all. We do have a long way to go. And people need to understand how important it is to even just watch the MK9 stream. Of course it's important to be there also, but if you can't make it, the viewership does play a role as well.
 

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
Sony, WB, NRS, etc all the sponsors we can. But also promoting it so we can get better turnouts.

GamerBlake90 I understand your position on this. My point is that this is great news for MLG. But in regards to these statistics, MK9 isn't a big part of them, if one at all. We do have a long way to go. And people need to understand how important it is to even just watch the MK9 stream. Of course it's important to be there also, but if you can't make it, the viewership does play a role as well.
Exactly.

That's part of why I took up streaming myself, in spite of the fact that I am not part of companies like MLG. And I encourage other members to consider pursuing this route if they can.