
Former Thunder Awaken manager José Eduardo “Pepe” Celis Castaneda drew attention on his social media to the difference in viewership numbers for The International 2026 broadcasts in different languages and commented on the future of the official Spanish-language broadcast.

The difference in viewership between the English, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese broadcasts on Twitch is enormous.
The Chinese broadcast actually takes place on DouYu, Huya, and BiliBili, where the audience exceeds 200,000 viewers.
The Spanish-language stream has a very low viewership, even though it’s currently 11:00 a.m. in that part of the continent. Compared to the other three languages, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last year of the official Spanish TI stream, after which it will be transitioned to a community cast format, as is the case with the Portuguese, Ukrainian, and Filipino streams.
Earlier, caster Daria “Autodestruction” Medvedeva spoke about community casts on the OFFSTAGE podcast: “All community casts right now rely on bookers and pre-established duos: Afoninje and RAMZES, and Daxak found Misolo3.”
Photo: José Eduardo “Pepe” Celis Castañeda.