Blizzard Entertainment has announced that StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm has reached a trio of milestones. Not only did 1.1 million viewers tune into the company’s 21-hour global broadcast of launch events and community celebrations around the world (peak concurrent viewership reaching over 125,000), the expansion sold through approximately 1.1 million copies worldwide.
“We want to thank the global StarCraft community for the incredible passion and support they’ve shown for Heart of the Swarm,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to a brand-new single-player campaign, we added a ton of enhancements with this expansion to make StarCraft II even more fun to play, and more exciting to watch. We’re pleased to see gamers and eSports fans around the world enjoying Heart of the Swarm.”
Last weekend, over 1.1 million viewers tuned in to see the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm tournament at the Major League Gaming (MLG) Winter Championship in Dallas, Texas. Heart of the Swarm reached a peak concurrent viewership of more than 157,000 viewers, as reported by Twitch.
“StarCraft II has been a premier game at Major League Gaming events since Wings of Liberty was released,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO of Major League Gaming. “Heart of the Swarm has generated even more excitement, and we’re all looking forward to what the future brings for StarCraft II eSports.”
“StarCraft II has always been one of the most popular games on Twitch, and we’ve noticed a wave of new viewership since Heart of the Swarm launched last week,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. “Viewer numbers are up just about across the board for the most popular StarCraft II pro-gamers and personalities who stream on Twitch.”
