CS:GO Majors viewership numbers — popular teams, biggest matches, platform & language milestones
The last-ever CS:GO Major has concluded, ending the run of one of the defining esports disciplines that helped make the industry the irrepressible force it is today. What started as important events for previous Counter-Strike iterations became proper Majors for the newly released CS:GO in 2012, with Valve’s involvement beginning at 2013's DreamHack Winter.
The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 then saw the developer change the format to include the Challengers, Legends, and Champions stages. This was the competition structure that fans saw until the last Major, alongside increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24.
The early Majors were dominated by Swedish teams Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas, who won four of the first six championships. Brazil's Luminosity Gaming became the first non-European side to clinch a Major, while Gambit Esports — consisting mostly of Kazakh players — made history as the first Asian and CIS team to triumph in one.
Across the 19 Majors held since, various records have been created and broken, with Astralis (four), Fnatic (three), and Virtus.pro (two) being the only multiple winners. Moreover, players like s1mple, ZywOo, and coldzera became household names thanks to their success in these competitions.
These events also became popular for introducing stickers, souvenir packages, and in-game tributes to the competitive sphere. And now, the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 has seen Team Vitality become the final winners in the game before Counter-Strike 2 takes over, and it created quite a few records before driving off into the sunset.
To begin with, the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 was the third-most-popular Major and tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history, behind the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and the PGL Major Stockholm 2021. It was also fifth for most watched such competitions ever, with the IEM Rio Major 2022 and FACEIT Major London 2018 also ahead alongside the two already-mentioned events.
What helped it do so well, apart from the obvious sentimental value, is that home side Team Vitality managed to go all the way. Moreover, there was much support for dupreeh, who won a record fifth Major and became the richest and most decorated CS:GO professional ever. In the process, the Dane also wrote his name in the history books as the only pro to play all 19 Majors that Valve has organized.
This was despite highly-favored sides like NAVI, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, ENCE, and Fnatic getting knocked out early and not making the final phase, the Champions Stage. There were also surprises from underdogs, including GamerLegion’s run to the Grand Final, apart from consistent sides like Heroic, FaZe, and Team Vitality showing up, which kept audiences invested throughout.
Coming to the most popular matches, one event had two entries, with the PGL Major Stockholm 2021’s games finishing in the first and fourth spots. The top game was the one between two highly popular teams that did 2.75M Peak Viewers thanks to their enduring success and fanbases globally.
In fact, the top ten list had five entries from Stockholm 2021 and two from the ELEAGUE Major (one each from 2017 and 2018). The PGL Major Antwerp 2022, BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, and IEM Rio Major 2022 also appeared once each.
NAVI’s worldwide popularity can be ascertained from the fact that it has five entries in the above standings, despite some up-and-down displays over the past 18 months. The Ukrainian organization appeared four times in the top five, with no other side having more than two entries.
Speaking of Natus Vincere, it topped the most watched and popular team leaderboards, which is no surprise considering it is perhaps the most followed CS:GO side the world over. Having a pro like s1mple in its ranks helps, for he might be the most famous face from the game ever and has backed it up with some amazing performances over the years.
When it comes to the former metric, it was 35% better than the second-placed side, FaZe Clan. In terms of average concurrent viewership, only one other side, SK Gaming, hit the 600K mark.
Without a surprise, it was Twitch that dominated this table, being the only platform to hit 2M PV during an event. Only three other sites were able to hit 100K PV, with the Sweden 2021 and France 2023 Majors featuring three and two times, respectively.
Kick, which only began operations a few months back, was the fifth-most popular platform, pointing to its growing influence and popularity among esports fans. That it did better than an established site like Facebook bodes well for the green platform as it looks to take on its highly-successful purple competitor in the long run.
English has been the top language across CS:GO competitions and Majors, and it did the best at the ELEAGUE Major 2018, hitting 1.13M PV. The only other language to peak at 1M was Russian, at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021.
The Sweden tournament was also the most popular for the most successful Asian language, Vietnamese. Polish was a surprising success story, and it did best at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, while Portuguese was most popular at Antwerp 2022, thanks to Imperial's match against Cloud9.
Regarding the success of stages at each competition, only two were able to cross the 1M PV mark when comparing the most successful Majors. It was the Legends Stages from the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and IEM Rio Major 2022, registering 1.11M PV and 1.08M PV, respectively.
Overall, the conduct of Majors in CS:GO esports was highly-lucrative for teams and organizers. They helped the discipline reach new heights and enter new markets while also slowly climbing up the viewership ladder, with the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 being especially critical to this rise.
Fans are now looking ahead to the arrival of CS2 and the changes that it will bring, including to the esports scene. Luckily for them, the first Major in this game is already set, coming from Copenhagen in spring 2024.
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