21.2 Livestream Numbers Surpass 21.1
21.3 brought a new livestream time, and perhaps more importantly, two workouts, as foreshadowed by Dave Castro’s Instagram story earlier in the day. Remarkably though, despite the earlier time, this broadcast brought more viewers.
The 21.3 & 21.4 livestream announcement brought the highest numbers of viewership throughout the entire 2021 Open.
- Max concurrent viewership came in with a final tally of 113,220, which was slightly less than 21.2.
- Total viewership after approximately 24 hours increased by 9%.
Max Concurrent Views By Streaming Service
| Platform | 21.1 | 21.2 | 21.3 |
| YouTube | 81,488 | 95,599 | 93,420 |
| 22,400 | 19,600 | 19,800 | |
| Total | 103,888 | 115,199 | 113,220 |
Total Viewership By Streaming Service
| Platform | 21.1 | 21.2 | 21.3 | Totals | Average Per Week |
| YouTube | 475,312 | 526,882 | 589,196 | 1,591,390 | 530,463 |
| 200,000 | 204,000 | 209,000 | 613,000 | 204,333 | |
| Total | 675,312 | 730,882 | 798,196 | 2,196,290 | 732,096 |
2020 Open Numbers Comparison
- 20.1: 649,000
- 20.2: 256,944
- 20.3: 355,744
- 20.4: 295,865
- 20.5: 281,734
- Total: 1,839,287
- Average Per Week: 367,857
21.3 and 21.4’s viewership numbers are not only significant because of their increase overall, but also because they reflect the reversal of a longstanding trend of decreased viewership of Open livestreams after week 1.
- In 2020, viewership decreased by 4.8% in the final week of the Open.
- This year, we saw a 8% increase in total viewership in the final week of the Open, something that goes against previous livestream viewership trends, which tends to decrease over the course of the Open.
- If we compare 20.5 views to 21.3 and 21.4, we see a 183% increase in total views after 24 hours.
One big thing: Adding all three weeks together, gives us a grand total of over 2 million total views over the course of the open, growing total views from 2020 by 109%, despite being shorter by 2 weeks.
- Not only did 2021 reverse the trend of decreasing open views each week, it gave us a record number of livestream views.
- In fact, average weekly viewership on YouTube alone surpassed total viewership each week for 2020.
- At the end of the 2021 Open, total average viewership per week increased by 99%.
The big picture: As the Open comes to a close, it’s clear that the sport of fitness is back. Despite a global pandemic and a public relations crisis last summer, it’s evident that CrossFit has made a comeback and is here to stay.
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