BLAST R6 Major Montreal attracted more viewers than the Manchester edition
The BLAST R6 Major Montreal 2024, the final major tournament of the year for Rainbow Six, wrapped up on November 17. In terms of audience reach, the event not only surpassed the Major in Manchester but also became one of the best in recent years, and a big part of that success can be credited to the American streamer Jynxzi.
While the biggest surprise in Phase 2 was the elimination of G2 Esports and Team Liquid, the playoffs went as expected: the grand final saw the Brazilian team w7m esports face off against the French team Team BDS, both of which are among the most successful Rainbow Six teams worldwide, ranking in the top 3 for all-time prize earnings.
w7m esports with major trophy / Photo: Ubisoft
The final match of the BLAST R6 Major Montreal 2024 was thrilling, with the Brazilian team securing a 3-1 victory. With this win, w7m esports claimed their third consecutive Major title in tournaments they’ve competed in. They also won the Six Invitational 2024 in February, making this year an incredibly successful one for the team.
Despite losing in the final, Team BDS is also wrapping up the year on a high note. The French squad reached the finals of two majors in 2024 (falling short in both), but their biggest achievement came with their victory at the Esports World Cup 2024 in Saudi Arabia. Next up for both Team BDS and w7m esports is the Six Invitational 2025, scheduled for February 2025. The world championship, which marks the end of the Rainbow Six season, will be held in the United States for the first time.
BLAST R6 Major Montreal 2024 Viewership Statistics
The BLAST R6 Major Montreal 2024 generated over 5.2 million Hours Watched, with a peak online audience of 172.7K viewers. In both categories, the Canadian major ranked second among all professional R6 tournaments in 2024, only behind the Six Invitational 2024.
The gap between the BLAST R6 Major Montreal 2024 and the BLAST R6 Major Manchester 2024 was small. The Montreal event saw the best performance in terms of Hours Watched (+2.4% HW) and peak online viewership (+6.5% PV), but slightly fell short in average viewers per stream (-2.8%). Both majors performed on a similar level and, more importantly, significantly outpaced the major events in 2023.
There are some key differences between the tournaments, though. First, the number of unique streaming channels for R6 Major Montreal was double that of R6 Major Manchester. The increase was mostly seen on Twitch, likely driven by the growing interest in Twitch Drops.
The second difference is in the language dynamics: the average viewership for English-language broadcasts of R6 Major Montreal grew by 11% compared to the Manchester tournament. A big part of this boost came from streams by Jynxzi, the most popular English-language community caster for the game. While he barely covered the previous Major, during R6 Major Montreal, Jynxzi streamed for around 22 hours, adding an extra 520K Hours Watched (about 25% of the official English-language channel's total viewership).
Thanks to Team BDS making it to the finals, French-language streams saw a slight bump in audience reach. However, Portuguese-language viewership dropped, even with the Brazilian team winning the tournament. We’ve seen a steady decline in viewership for RazaH, the Brazilian community caster who regularly covers Rainbow Six events. The numbers were also down for the official Brazilian channels on Twitch and YouTube.
Compared to last year, BLAST reduced the number of teams at the Majors, making the tournaments a bit shorter. But these changes seem to have paid off: average viewership grew by 48%, and the peak online audience nearly doubled. A big part of that success was the rise of community casters, especially stars like Jynxzi. The presence of popular American streamers could be a game changer for the upcoming Six Invitational 2025, which will be held in the United States for the first time.
