BLAST.tv Austin Major: Which final could draw the biggest audience?

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The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 playoffs are underway, and it’s a great moment to consider how many viewers the final could draw. While not all fan-favorites reached the last stage, making a new Counter-Strike viewership record unlikely, analysts at Esports Charts say that under the perfect scenario, the final could come close, hitting up to 2 million concurrent viewers.

Together with our partner Hellcase, Esports Charts examines different scenarios to identify which matchup has the potential to deliver the tournament’s biggest audience.

For illustration purposes, we’ve mapped out three viewership scenarios from least to most favorable. In the Moderate Scenario, the final might not even exceed the current tournament peak of 1.1 million concurrent viewers, though this is unlikely: in the best Moderate Scenario, the peak would most likely be around 200,000 higher.

The strongest matchup in the moderate scenario is Natus Vincere vs. paiN Gaming. While NAVI once dominated the Counter-Strike scene in terms of fan support, those days are behind them, and their presence alone is unlikely to deliver peak numbers. PaiN Gaming, meanwhile, brings the potential to mobilize Brazil’s massive fanbase, one of the game’s most influential demographics. However, with FURIA still in the bracket and currently the more popular Brazilian team, paiN doesn't carry the same viewership weight, which is why this matchup falls into the mid-range category.

As mentioned earlier, paiN brings solid regional support, while Team Spirit is currently the strongest contender from their side of the bracket, consistently drawing the highest audience numbers during Austin Major so far.

In our view, the ideal scenario could draw up to 2 million concurrent viewers for the final. Team Spirit remains the top contender from one side of the bracket, while FaZe Clan stands out from the other. The American team is currently the world’s most popular, largely because of their stand-in Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev, who consistently pulls in tens of thousands of extra viewers regardless of which team he plays for.

Another key factor is FaZe’s international lineup. With players who resonate with North American, CIS, and European fans alike, they’re a truly global team, and just making it to the final would likely guarantee at least an average viewership outcome for the event.

We won’t have to wait long to see how it all unfolds: the first quarterfinal, Team Spirit vs. MOUZ, takes place on June 19, with the grand final set for Sunday, June 22. Curious how the Austin Major stacks up viewership-wise against the previous event in the series? We’ve got that covered too: full breakdown inside.