Esports viewership data tracking platform Esports Charts has announced a new service that will provide statistics on Chinese live streaming platforms.
Named DoHuya, the new platform will track and analyse data from Chinese streaming sites DouYu and Huya, two of the largest such sites in China. As of right now, the platform’s data will cover channels, games and live broadcasts.
Gauging the popularity of esports and games in China has long been a difficult task given that streaming sites in the country do not publish direct viewership statistics. DoHuya will instead record the sites’ ‘Heat Index’, a metric used by both platforms and many others in China that indicates the popularity of a stream.
According to Esports Charts, ‘Heat Index’ is influenced by a myriad of factors such as the stream duration, the total number of people who visited the broadcast and the number of videos on the channel. However, the company noted that the methodology and calculation of ‘heat’ may differ depending on the platform. The methodology is undisclosed for both platforms.
Whilst this means that viewership figures from China still won’t be directly recorded, DoHuya still provides an indication of what is currently popular. It will also enable the comparison of the relative popularity of esports events amongst Chinese audiences, even if not the exact size of that popularity. This comparison can only be made when looking at streams on the same platform.
As of this moment, DoHuya will primarily focus on the overall live-streaming ecosystem in China, with airtime indicators and channel statistics being utilised. However, the platform aims to add a block dedicated to esports content statistics in the near future.
Esports Charts told Esports Insider that esports statistics tracked through DoHuya will remain separate from Esports Charts viewership. However, findings will eventually be implemented alongside Esports Charts’ reports to provide additional contextual information.
Moreover, the company is already making efforts to integrate statistics from popular Chinese platforms Bilibili and CC163.
Esports Charts tracks viewership for esports events and maintains a database of esports viewership going back to 2017. However, its statistics notably exclude Chinese viewership for the aforementioned reasons, meaning it is impossible to accurately gauge the true viewership size for events with significant Chinese followings — including League of Legends. DoHuya will aim to help alleviate this problem.
Esports Charts also runs a sister brand, Stream Charts, which tracks similar statistics but for all streaming data not just esports.
Nazar Babenko, Streams Charts Product Manager, commented: “The Chinese streaming market is of great interest worldwide, our partners and customers have been requesting its viewership data constantly. DoHuya is a trial balloon to start providing understandable audience analytics.
“We will do our best to further strengthen our expertise in the Chinese streaming market to provide more deep insights, including media value, sponsorship evaluation, etc. One of our main goals is to connect brands with the most relevant Chinese streaming, entertainment, sports and esports entities”.