The Call of Duty League hasn’t really seemed all that successful the last few years, but the General Manager of Call of Duty Esports recently said it’s actually going awesome. Better than ever, actually.

The all-time high for the CDL is not that high. According to Esports Charts, the highest recent viewership for Call of Duty esports was for the Modern Warfare 3 Tournament Old School in 2023 at nearly 440,000 views. For the Call of Duty League, the Playoffs had 353,500 peak viewers in 2025. Going into 2026, the Stage 1 Major has 353,000 views.

I’m assuming that GM Daniel Tsay sees this as a positive. The Stage 1 Major has almost the same views as the Playoffs last year. That means we’ll see more views at the Playoffs, right? I mean, maybe. But it still won’t be a lot. At least not compared to popular esports like League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Counter-Strike 2, or VALORANT.

However, maybe Tsay has accepted that Call of Duty League will never be a top esport and feels it’s doing well for the level of esport it is. He said to Insider Gaming:

“We’ve had to shift in how we execute, but we’ve really concentrated our bets into areas that I think have really propelled this forward. We’re actually the most financially stable we’ve ever been. Viewership is also the highest it has ever been.”

Call of Duty League Is Probably at Its Peak Right Now

I just don’t think the Call of Duty League is going to get any bigger. I think this is it. So if Tsay thinks this level of viewership is great, I’d say it’s great. This is the peak.

Former Call of Duty Multiplayer Creative Director Greg Reisdorf recently condemned Activision for the Call of Duty League’s failure to grow. There is a new Call of Duty game each year, which has made it quite difficult for the esports scene to have any sort of consistency. It’s hard for there to be growth, rivalries, redemption arcs, storylines… It’s like a restart every year.

Read Also:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 puts players in a walk-in closet for April Fool’s Day, saving me from unfunny tweets
• Call of Duty: Warzone streamer Jordan Sisco reportedly abuses pregnant wife on stream

“You’ve mastered those skills over your lifetime, and you’ve mastered the skills of using the controller and everything else, but not really the rules of the game, because the rules of the game are changing every year or even each season for that matter,” Reisdorf said.

And there doesn’t seem to be a solution in the works. Activision could make a separate competitive PvP mode that stays the same every year for the competitive scene. Or maybe they can sell skins instead of selling new games every year. I don’t know. But it’s not being planned right now.

Call of Duty is generally popular, but more as a casual game. And Activision seems fine with that.