Over the course of the last week and a half, the zerg Swarm has descended upon the earth, and we at Blizzard are very grateful for the overwhelmingly positive reception the StarCraft community has given to Heart of the Swarm. It all started on March 11 with over 21 hours of live broadcast that spanned the world. Thousands of you came out to join us in person at nine different official launch events, and many, many more of you joined us online. Our global broadcast served over one million unique viewers, with a peak concurrent viewership of over 125,000 across all of our channels on Twitch. That’s a welcome fit for a Queen!

We'd like to thank Team Liquid and Sean "Day[9]" Plott for their huge roles with the global stream and our Irvine community event. Thanks also go out to all who contributed content for broadcast on the stream; your creativity was much appreciated. And of course, we'd like to recognize OGN, GomTV, ESL, Twitch, the pro players, casters, hosts, sponsors, and others who helped make the event so successful. The spirit of collaboration was unprecedented and amazing, making this a launch we will remember for years to come.

But that’s not all. The weekend following the launch of Heart of the Swarm, more than 1.1 million people tuned in to watch StarCraft II eSports at MLG Pro Circuit Winter Championship in Dallas. Peak concurrency reached over 157,000 viewers on championship Sunday.

Our deepest thanks go out to everyone in the StarCraft II community. Your enthusiasm has fueled an amazing kickoff for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

We can’t wait to see what the coming year holds for StarCraft II, and we’re grateful to have such a passionate community to share it with. For the Swarm!