The group stage of IEM Rio 2024 has been a rollercoaster for Counter-Strike fans, not only drawing impressive viewer numbers but also delivering surprising results. This year’s event has already surpassed last year’s in viewership, despite some fan-favorite teams making early exits.
One of the biggest shocks was G2 Esports’ elimination. NiKo’s team only played two matches in Rio, losing to Heroic and Eternal Fire. What makes this more surprising is that G2 had just won the BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 and climbed to second in the HLTV.org rankings before heading to Brazil.
G2 wasn’t the only high-profile team knocked out early. FaZe Clan and Team Liquid, both in Counter-Strike’s top ten, also failed to advance past the group stage. The six teams that did make it to the playoffs are FURIA Esports, Natus Vincere, and MOUZ from Group A. Heroic, Team Vitality, and Virtus.pro from Group B.
IEM Rio 2024’s group stage achieved strong viewership numbers. Compared to 2023, average stream viewership grew by nearly 20%, with peak online viewership up by almost 15%. Total Hours Watched is slightly behind last year’s numbers, largely due to reduced airtime.
Portuguese-language broadcasts saw significant growth, boosted by FURIA’s success and the popularity of Brazilian caster Gaules, who expanded his streams to YouTube this year, in addition to Twitch. Russian-language streams also experienced a substantial 66% rise in viewership compared to IEM Rio 2023, driven by Virtus.pro’s playoff run and the strong presence of community casters like buster, sl4m, and dmitry_lixxx.
Meanwhile, English-language streams saw a decline, with peak online viewership dropping 18%, particularly on ESL’s official Twitch channels. However, YouTube viewership on ESL’s channel rose by about 12%, with the platform’s share of total broadcasts jumping from 12.5% last year to 35.4%.
Group Stage
The group stage’s most-watched match was the showdown between FURIA Esports and Natus Vincere, drawing nearly 432,000 concurrent viewers. This match was particularly beneficial for viewership as it brought together two major fan bases—FURIA from Brazil and Natus Vincere from Eastern Europe and the CIS region.
So far, IEM Rio 2024 ranks as the fourth most-watched Counter-Strike event in Rio. With the playoffs coming up from October 11 to 13, it still has the chance to surpass IEM Rio 2023 and take second place, though the top spot held by IEM Rio Major 2022 remains secure. Keep an eye on the event’s reporting page for results and updated viewership stats.
