Call of Duty League returns to U.K. for Birmingham Major

The Call of Duty League returned to the U.K. for the Birmingham Major at DreamHack, its first Major in Birmingham and the league’s first U.K. event in five years. The tournament logged just over 3,000,000 Hours Watched across 20.5 hours of broadcast, averaged nearly 150,000 concurrent viewers and peaked at more than 264,000 live viewers for the FaZe Vegas–OpTic Texas grand final. Co-casters accounted for 98% of total viewership.

The event took place as part of the DreamHack festival. FaZe Vegas defeated OpTic Texas in the grand final to claim the title.

Qualifying for the Birmingham Major reflected several roster moves and a format change. Following Major 1 in February, Los Angeles Thieves parted ways with Kenneth “Kenny” Williams. Toronto KOI signed Challengers prospect Nicholas “Kips” Lyons to replace José “ReeaL” Fernández. Cloud9 New York overhauled its roster. The league replaced Control with a hybrid mode called Overload, which altered match pacing and team strategies entering qualifiers.

Those changes had immediate effects in qualifying. Cloud9 New York’s new lineup finished last. Paris Gentle Mates, the Major 1 winner, qualified narrowly and finished tied for fifth–sixth at Birmingham. Boston Breach failed to qualify, preventing British player Byron “Nastie” Plumridge from competing at home.

Viewership declined relative to Major 1: average viewers fell 16.5% and Hours Watched dropped nearly 42%. Organizers attributed the differences to the European time slot and the unusually high baseline set by the season-opening Major in the U.S. Despite the decline, Birmingham Major 2 ranked among the top five most-viewed Call of Duty League Majors and 13th when including independent and streamer-led competitive Call of Duty events. Nearly 80% of total watch time involved matches featuring FaZe Vegas or OpTic Texas.

FaZe posted three of the event’s top-five series by peak viewers and led the tournament in total watch time after advancing through the lower bracket. OpTic recorded a slightly higher average audience. The tournament’s shorter runtime than Major 1 reduced cumulative Hours Watched. The expanded co-casting approach broadened distribution across platforms and time zones.

Major 3 qualifiers begin April 17. Teams and organizations are adjusting rosters and strategies ahead of the next phase of the 2026 season.