Is StarCraft 2 Dead?

StarCraft 2 is a title that’s sustained an esports scene with sparse new releases for content, surviving as an esports mainstay without the need for new instalments of the game. However, that hasn’t stopped people from asking if StarCraft 2 is dead. From more competition in esports to the impact of Blizzard moving on, there are a lot of reasons to think Starcraft 2 isn’t at its healthiest.

Is Starcraft 2 Dead?

For many, StarCraft 2 might be a dead game thanks to its lack of support from developers altogether. However, this is a title that has an impressive competitive community, one that doesn’t entirely need new content to keep the game relevant. The best StarCraft 2 players are still finding new ways to innovate within the title. Is this enough though, or is StarCraft 2 dead?

StarCraft 2 might have been out since 2010, but it still maintains regular tournaments and an active player base that keeps queue times low. However, with Blizzard shutting down support for the title, is it fair to call it a dead game? In terms of esports, that would be a hard sell. There are loads of StarCraft 2 tournaments regularly being held. Although, a look at their viewing numbers and how the structure of tournaments has changed can better illustrate the game’s problems.

StarCraft 2 Tournaments – Are They Slowing Down?

If you’re asking ‘is StarCraft 2 dead?’ then a great place to start is looking at the tournaments. The competitive calendar may have looked a little busier a few years ago, but the title definitely still has a decent roster of events. In 2024, Starcraft 2 will return to IEM Katowice with a 4 day tournament and $500,000 prize pool. ESL are one of the biggest tournament organizers in the world – if they have faith in the game it’s likely there’s the audience to back it up.

The game’s prize pools have never reached the heights of Dota 2 but it’s hard to argue that StarCraft 2 still doesn’t have enough to offer. The high-level events still bring in prizes that rise above a lot of games. However, there is one metric where StarCraft 2 tournaments have downturned a bit. In terms of their total events across all tiers of competition, things have slowed down since the game’s peak.

This is less a sign that StarCraft 2 is dead is than it might be heading that way eventually. With the introduction of new games RTS games like Stormgate in 2024, we may see a further reduction in the amount of SC2 tournaments. This is natural for a game without active development, but it does point toward StarCraft being passed its stage of growth as an esport.

Viewing Numbers for StarCraft 2

Viewing numbers for an esport can be a good way to judge how well it’s doing in terms of popularity. Viewership numbers for StarCraft 2 might not ever have been quite on the level as some titles, but the game has pulled in a decent viewership for most big tournaments. The most recent highest-level tournament was ESL SC2 Master 2023 Winter. This year, that tournament pulled in 35,618 viewers at its peak and an average viewership of 19,198.

This is down a little from the likes of IEM Katowice 2022 but there is still an audience for these kinds of tournaments.

If we look back further, the 2020 and 2019 IEM events show stronger numbers too. 2020 saw peak viewers of 71,794 and an average viewer of 31,489. 2019 had figures of 80,763 at the perk and 40,622 on average. We can see that the viewing figures for StarCraft 2 aren’t exactly a straight trend line down. While the most recent tournament’s figures are disappointing compared to previous ones, the game’s had years with fewer viewers in the past without that becoming an ongoing trend. The viewing figures are still within a decent range of what’s normal for the game. If this drop-off continues for another few years though, that could be a warning sign.

Some years will naturally have more hype going into them than others. However, StarCraft 2’s viewing numbers are still pretty good. Especially for a game that mainly lives on the hype of its community at the moment.

Will StarCraft 2 Regain Popularity?

It’s difficult to say SC2 is dying, but it does have some clear problems. It isn’t being supported by the developer of the game and little work will go into expanding it. This basically puts everything up to the community. It’s likely current fans will be able to keep completive StarCraft relevant for quite a while to come.

It seems that while Starcraft has been at the top of the RTS esports scene for some time, new games like Stormgate are set to take over.