In Call of Duty, the American Seth “Scump” Abner is considered one of the most successful and best professionals of all time. At 27, he has decided that it’s no longer enough for esports. He announced his retirement. Scump now wants to focus more on streaming on Twitch: But an expert predicts that CoD is facing its biggest crisis in three years.
This is Scump:
- Since 2011, Scump has been playing Call of Duty professionally, and since at least 2016, he has been a big name in esports: Back then, he won an award as “Esports Console Player of the Year.”
- Scump has won a total of $1.18 million in prize money with Call of Duty, the most money came from “Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare” in 2017 (via esportsearnings) – his world champion year.
- In addition to his role as a professional player, Scump has built up a Twitch account over the years: There he has 1.38 million followers and usually streams with about 10,000 viewers – which is quite a lot.
This was the surprise: In the middle of the professional season of “Modern Warfare 2,” Scump has now announced his retirement.
He says he wants to focus more on content creation and cannot fully commit to that while also playing Call of Duty at the highest level.
He is now also 27 and is playing against 21-year-olds, who are simply faster now.
This seems to be balancing justice for Scump having once farmed poor TimTheTatman at an event to the point where he complained: He is a fat dad who is going bald, and please leave him alone.
Nadeshot predicts: “CoD is in its biggest crisis in three years” on Twitch
How was this discussed? The retirement was a surprise to many.
One of the most important streamers for Call of Duty, former pro Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag said (via dotesports): If one looks at it critically, it is indeed a strange time for Scump to fully dive into Call of Duty on Twitch, as it is now the first time in three years that Call of Duty is facing a crisis with the weakest viewer numbers ever.
Many content creators of Call of Duty would speak of an “apocalypse” because their income is dwindling.
Nadeshot said: If he were as talented as Scump, he would continue in esports.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 loses 70% of viewers on Twitch in 3 months
Is Nadeshot right? Yes, viewer numbers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II have rapidly declined on Twitch:
- In November 2022, the game had 43.1 million viewed hours and an average of 59,979 viewers.
- By December 2022, the numbers had already halved, down to 22.2 million hours and 29,879 viewers.
- In the last 30 days, in January 2023, it went down sharply again: 14.2 million hours and an average of 19,808 viewers.
Thus, CoD Modern Warfare has lost nearly 70% of its viewers in a short period.
$17,000 in one stream and more viewers than the official channel
How did it go for Scump now? In Scump’s first week as a full-time streamer for the Call of Duty league, there was no sign of a “Call of Duty” apocalypse:
- In 3 streams, Scump attracted over 45,000 viewers – more than 4 times his average in 2022.
- At the peak, on January 20, over 88,000 viewers tuned in to watch him – this was a new record for him. He reached far more viewers than the official account of the league, which had 63,000.
- Additionally, he earned $17,000 from Twitch subs in the first stream – with a single watch party.
Scump’s success is seen in comments as proof that Scump, as the “face of Call of Duty,” is now bigger than the game.
Some say that by still doing esports, he held himself back. During the golden age of Warzone, Scump could have become even bigger on Twitch.
How the numbers will develop in the long run remains to be seen. At the moment, it seems that the 27-year-old has done everything right with his transition from pro to Twitch streamer, despite the “apocalypse.”
Call of Duty unexpectedly loses one of its best players – “Inspiration for an entire generation.”
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