DreamLeague Season 25 Achieves Six-Year Viewership High
The inaugural Dota 2 tournament of 2025, DreamLeague Season 25, has concluded with record-breaking success. The event garnered its highest viewership numbers since 2019, with over 416,000 peak concurrent viewers during the grand finals.
Team Spirit emerged victorious in a thrilling best-of-five series against Tundra Esports, claiming the championship with a 3-2 scoreline. The Russian squad took home $290,000 and 4,620 ESL Pro Tour points, while runners-up Tundra Esports received $130,000 and 3,920 EPT points.
The grand finals weren’t without drama, however. During game four, with Team Spirit leading 2-1 in the series, a suspected DDoS attack forced players to disconnect. Unable to resolve the technical issues immediately, organizers postponed the remainder of the finals to March 4th, where Team Spirit maintained their composure and secured the victory.
This tournament marked Team Spirit’s return to winning form after a ten-month drought. Their performance throughout the competition significantly contributed to the event’s popularity, as they featured in all five of the most-watched matches of the tournament.
The Russian-speaking audience played a crucial role in the viewership surge, setting a new DreamLeague record with over 244,000 peak viewers. For the first time in the series’ history, Russian-language broadcasts accumulated more than 10 million hours watched. Popular co-streamers like Roman “ramzes” Kushnarev and Yaroslav “just_ns” Kuznetsov further boosted these numbers.
Overall, DreamLeague Season 25 recorded impressive statistics:
- $1 million prize pool
- 23.8 million hours watched
- 167 hours of broadcast time
- The second-highest watch time in DreamLeague history
Notably absent from the later stages was Team Falcons, winners of the previous three DreamLeague tournaments, who exited during Group Stage 2. The competitive landscape now appears to be dominated by Team Falcons and Team Spirit, who have collectively won the last five DreamLeague seasons.
As the most-watched Dota 2 event of 2025 so far, DreamLeague Season 25 sets a promising tone for the year’s esports calendar. With major tournaments on the horizon, including the prestigious Esports World Cup this summer, the Dota 2 competitive scene appears to be maintaining strong viewer interest.
