How G2's downfall and FURIA's success shaped IEM Rio 2024 Group Stage viewership
The group stage of IEM Rio 2024 has definitely stirred up a lot of emotions among Counter-Strike fans. Not only did the tournament achieve impressive audience numbers, but it also surprised viewers with some unexpected results. So far, the viewership for the event has surpassed last year's championship, despite some early exits from favored teams.
The biggest shock of the group stage was the elimination of G2 Esports. NiKo’s squad played just two matches in Rio, losing to Heroic and Eternal Fire. It's notable that just days before heading to Brazil, G2 clinched a big title at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024 and climbed to second spot in the HLTV.org world rankings.
Alongside G2, FaZe Clan and Team Liquid, both of whom are among the top ten teams in Counter-Strike, also didn’t make it past the group stage of IEM Rio 2024. In total, six teams advanced to the playoffs: FURIA Esports, Natus Vincere, and MOUZ emerged as the top teams in Group A, while Group B saw Heroic, Team Vitality, and Virtus.pro move on.
IEM Rio 2024 delivered impressive viewership stats during the group stage. Compared to IEM Rio 2023, the average number of viewers across streams jumped by nearly 20%, while peak online viewership increased by almost 15%. Total Hours Watched for this year’s tournament is just slightly behind last year's, mainly due to reduced airtime.
There was significant growth in Portuguese-language broadcasts, largely thanks to the strong performance of FURIA Esports and the popularity of Brazilian community caster Gaules. It’s notable that Gaules only streamed on Twitch at IEM Rio 2023, but this year he also incorporated multicasting on YouTube.
Russian-language streams also saw a substantial increase, with the average number of viewers rising by 66% compared to IEM Rio 2023. This surge among Russian-speaking fans was fueled by Virtus.pro’s advancement to the playoffs, along with high viewer engagement on channels of community casters like buster, sl4m, and dmitry_lixxx.
On the other hand, the popularity of English-language streams dipped somewhat from last year, with peak online viewership dropping by 18%. This decline was primarily seen on ESL's official Twitch channels, eslcs and eslcsb; for example, peak viewership on eslcsb fell by more than half.
Interestingly, while metrics on Twitch declined, peak online viewership on ESL’s YouTube channel saw a slight uptick, increasing by about 12% from last year's peak. Overall, the share of broadcasts on YouTube rose significantly, from 12.5% to 35.4% compared to last year.
The most popular match in the group stage of IEM Rio 2024 was the game between FURIA Esports and Natus Vincere, which peaked at nearly 432,000 concurrent viewers. From an audience perspective, this matchup was ideal for the tournament, as it featured two major demographic segments in esports: FURIA attracted a large viewership from Brazil, while Natus Vincere has a strong fanbase in Eastern Europe and the CIS.
Currently, IEM Rio 2024 ranks fourth among all Counter-Strike tournaments ever held in Rio. However, with the main matches still to come, it has the potential to climb to second place, surpassing IEM Rio 2023. The top spot held by IEM Rio Major 2022 is likely to remain unchanged.
The playoff matches for IEM Rio 2024 will take place from October 11 to 13. You can keep track of results and viewership statistics on the event's reporting page.
