Castro’s Return and an Increase in Livestream Views
For the first time in two years, General Manager of Sport, Dave Castro returned for his infamous Open announcements, as everyone gathered around laptops, computers and phones, eagerly awaiting the announcement of 21.1.
The Open comes home: This year marked not only the return of Dave Castro but also the return of the Open Livestreams produced by CrossFit LLC, which had been handed over to affiliates and Sanctionals for production in the 2019 and 2020 Opens.
- The livestream was held at the Santa Cruz offices of CrossFit LLC and featured several familiar faces, including Sean Woodland, Rory McKernan, Annie Sakamoto and Niki Brazier, as well as newcomer Derrick Forrest and a virtual audience tuning in via Zoom.
- After approximately 24 hours, final livestream numbers were tallied and the 21.1 livestream numbers surpassed 20.1 livestream’s numbers by 4%, a significant increase given the low numbers in Open registration.
Max Concurrent Views By Streaming Service:
- YouTube: 81,488
- Facebook: 22,400
- Total Views Across All Services:103,888
Final Numbers for 21.1 Livestream:
- YouTube: 475,312
- Facebook: 200,000
- Total: 675,312
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: 1,839,278
Registration has climbed slowly compared to some past years, but that hasn’t slowed the viewership on the livestreams. In fact, this year’s viewership of the first Open broadcast exceeded the current Open registration by almost 500,000 people.
- This trend could be a positive sign that Open registration numbers might start growing quicker than expected as more athletes register over the first weekend of the Open.