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27-the weekend of ELEAGUE Major: Boston’s finals. The most-watched day for CS:GO in terms of total hours watched was Jan. This year history was made by C9 as they became the first ever American team to win a Major, and viewership for that event reflected the scope of the accomplishment. However, when there aren’t high-profile competitions going on, the game sees a sharp decline in hours watched on Twitch.
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As competitions come, so does the viewership. As broadcasts become more fragmented across different platforms for CS:GO, it may become increasingly difficult to gauge the true growth of the game’s viewership.ĬS:GO is an esport through and through. Organizers like ELEAGUE often air competitions on TBS, and ESL and DreamHack have signed a deal to broadcast matches on Denmark-based TV2. Twitch by no means has a monopoly on the title’s esports broadcasts. It’s difficult to get a firm grasp of how many people are truly watching CS:GO from year to year because rights for broadcasting the game’s esports have grown. Though the game’s viewership goes through long stints of mediocre viewership, the title’s flourishing esports scene causes huge spikes in viewership during high-profile competitions. The event’s viewership was a 26.8% increase over last year’s ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta, which was also played in January, and on Twitch specifically, the game is set to outpace last year’s overall numbers.ĭespite about 10 days remaining in the year, CS:GO has already recorded more total hours watched (353.51M) than last year (353.18M).
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The title’s most-watched event of the year on YouTube and Twitch, according to research by Newzoo, was the ELEAGUE Major: Boston, which saw C9 capture a title, pulling 54.1M hours watched. Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive might not have the power of League of Legends as an esport, or Fortnite as a cultural phenomenon, but the team-based first-person shooter remains one of the strongest titles on Twitch in terms of viewership.īecause of the game’s age, esports account for a large portion of the title’s viewership on Twitch, much in the way esports do for LoL and Dota 2, and thanks to some help from popular esports organization Cloud9 becoming the first North American team to ever win a Major, the esport saw viewership growth. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Fortnite, League of Legends
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