How The Wold's Biggest Counter-Strike Tournament Broke All Audience Records, And Why The Whole Planet Loves This Game

By Juan Ignacio Boscato

The first phase of the Global Offensive GO Counter-Strike Major, the most important tournament in the world for the game, exceeded a historical spectator mark this year. More than 751,557 people online enjoyed as the RioCentro arena vibrated during the matches - especially when Brazilians were playing.

During the first stage of the CS: GO, Major, known as the Challengers Stage, 16 teams battled it out in a "Swiss Format" (a popular elimination format in which all teams compete against each other). About 5000 people filled the capacity of the place during the face-to-face days.

But the match that broke the record was one in the first round between the local Imperial, with the figures of FalleN and fer, and the European squad Vitality, which has ZywOo as a star. The team of French origin achieved 16-9 victory.

According to data from Esports Charts, the peak audience for the event was 751,557 viewers, almost 50,000 more than the 707,312 in Antwerp, the previous edition of the CS: GO World Cup.

During the first day, which resulted in some 14 hours of gameplay, the average number of viewers was 458,822, with a total of 6,691,160 hours viewed.

Viewership comparison of 1st day Challengers Stage on #IEM Rio Major & #PGLMajor Antwerp
+6% by Peak Viewers
-7.5% by Average Viewers
+18% by Hours Watched
Read more in our article:https://t.co/tAm7EUAsf4 pic.twitter.com/2L4SGHrAdm

— Esports Charts (@EsportsCharts) November 2, 2022

What's Up With Brazil?

Brazil is the largest esports market in Latin America, and this was reflected in the championship. So much so that, despite the fact that the most convening teams failed to qualify (Complexity, G2, or Astralis), those numbers and that environment of a high level of competition were still achieved.

It is the first time that a Major has spectators in all its instances: the first two phases are held at the Rio Centro convention center, while the playoffs are hosted by the Arena Jeunesse, used in the 2016 Olympic Games.

In-person, more than 100,000 people are expected to pass every day. Even the playoff stage had to become a 360° stage to almost double the capacity of the place since tickets had sold out in a matter of hours.

The big number to break is the tournament's total spectator peak, a record that was set last year.

So far, the five highest numbers were:

• PGL Major Stockholm 2021 — 2,748,850
• PGL Major Antwerp 2022 — 2,113,610
• ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 — 1,331,781

ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018 — 1,329,096

• Intel Extreme Masters Katowice Major 2019 — 1,205,103

The key, for many, is that a Brazilian team can go as far as possible. Not only because of the location but also because of the figure of the Gaul streamer, one of the biggest on Twitch, with peaks that reached 707,648 viewers during the Stockholm Major following the Imperial Esports campaign.

Later Stages

After the Challengers, the next phase will be the Legends Stage, where 16 teams face each other again but huge organizations come into action both in public and sportingly. Among them are Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, and Team Liquid.

As for the prizes, there is a total of $1.2 million dollars. Of that pot, half a million will go to the champion and $170,000 to the second, while the rest of the money will be distributed among the teams that fell by the wayside.

All entrants secured at least a $10,000 prize.

But in addition to what is awarded by the tournament, there are the "stickers" (items within the game) with the logos of the teams and the signatures of the players within the game. Since 50% of the income generated by these objects goes directly to the organizations participating in the tournament, this represents another significant revenue stream for players, even though the income generated by the stickers is not publicly disclosed.

All the conditions are in place to continue breaking brands within an industry that does not stop growing and adding followers, mainly in these instances. What will happen next?

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Image by El Planteo