Riyadh is solidifying its status as a premier esports hub worldwide. This summer, the Saudi Arabian capital is hosting over 20 esports tournaments with a combined prize pool of $60 million. Dota 2 and Counter-Strike remain highly popular, especially among Western audiences. While Dota 2 had the most viewers last year, this year Counter-Strike has taken the spotlight.
The Esports World Cup 2024 garnered significant attention, partly due to the star-studded lineup and curiosity about G2 Esports’ new roster. Fans eagerly watched to see how the team, now captained by the legendary Polish player Snax and featuring two new additions, would perform.
The playoffs brought unexpected outcomes. Team Vitality faced a surprising defeat against Virtus.pro in a gripping series on Mirage that went into multiple overtime rounds. Meanwhile, G2 Esports eliminated Team Spirit, and Natus Vincere knocked out FaZe Clan.
The final match saw G2 Esports face off against Natus Vincere, a team they’ve struggled to beat in numerous encounters over the past year and a half. Natus Vincere emerged victorious again with a 2:1 scoreline.
This victory marks NAVI’s second major tournament win in 2024, following their success at the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. NAVI has already earned over a million dollars in prize money this year.
The grand final between NAVI and G2 peaked at over 756,700 concurrent viewers, doubling the viewership of any other match in the tournament. The broadcasts averaged 237,600 concurrent viewers.
Despite a slow start, the Esports World Cup 2024 outperformed last year’s Gamers8 2023 in key metrics: average viewership increased by nearly 8%, and peak viewership soared by 76%. While last year’s tournament had slightly more total Hours Watched, this was mainly due to differences in airtime.
Comparing Esports World Cup 2024 (CS) and Gamers8 2023
Several notable changes characterized this year’s Esports World Cup coverage. YouTube’s audience share increased from 10.6% to 15.8% of total tournament HW, while the percentage of English broadcasts dropped from 44% to 36%. Nevertheless, the Counter-Strike tournament led in peak viewership among all Esports World Cup events on English streams.
Russian language streams saw a modest rise, increasing their share from 24% to 27% of total HW. Streamer shadowkekw made a significant impact by collaborating with s1mple, Evelone, and other creators during the final, drawing 107,100 concurrent viewers to his channel, making it the second most popular channel covering the tournament and marking the second most viewed stream in shadowkekw’s career.
The Esports World Cup 2024 showed significant growth in peak viewership compared to Gamers8 2023, largely due to community casters. ohnePixel, the primary English community caster for the game, experienced significant viewer growth. The event also featured broadcasts from well-known streamers like xQc, forsen, shroud, izakooo, and Gaules. In total, over 100 unique channels covered the tournament in Riyadh, a notable increase from the 80 channels of Gamers8 2023.
A special highlight goes to EWC_CS, the main official English channel of the tournament, which peaked at 143.5 thousand viewers this year, setting a personal record and establishing itself as the most popular channel by this metric.
Most popular Esports World Cup 2024 tournaments by Peak Viewers
Currently, the Esports World Cup 2024 is the fourth most popular Counter-Strike tournament of the year, trailing only PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, IEM Katowice 2024, and IEM Dallas 2024. However, with several major tournaments still to come this year, these rankings might change.
Most popular Counter-Strike tournaments in 2024
The grand final of the Counter-Strike tournament coincided somewhat with the Riyadh Masters 2024 final, which affected the viewer statistics for the Dota 2 event. For more detailed insights, refer to our article summarizing Riyadh Masters 2024.