EA Sports Cup: an event that revitalized the FIFA esports scene

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The EA Sports Cup is one of the most important tournaments of the FIFA esports scene, since the two best teams of the event qualify for the FIFAe Club World Cup 2023. It’s a 2v2 tournament, which is taking place in London, and has a prize pool of $250K. EA Sports Cup brings together twenty clubs, with each club having two players representing it. These players are some of the best in the world, such as Tekkz, or Msdossary, who are two legends of the game. Of the twenty teams that started the event, only eight of them made it into the playoffs. In the playoffs, teams will battle in a single elimination bracket, so every match is a must-win if they want to take the trophy home. 

One very curious thing about the event, is that it joins the traditional esports organizations, with the sports clubs. Organizations such as Fnatic, Team Heretics, or Guild Esports, are competing with football clubs like Manchester City, PSG eSports, and Atlanta United FC. These clubs have been entering the esports scene in the recent past, and in most cases, FIFA is the primary title of their esports division. 

One curious fact is that, Fokus Clan Co-Owner & CEO EliasN97, is a retired professional FIFA player. He is also one of the most popular streamers of the title on Twitch, and is always looking for ways to help the game esports scene grow.

When it comes to EA Sports Cup viewership, the event has reached great results, and the most important stage of the tournament hasn't even begun. Fans wanted to see high-level gameplay of FIFA, and the EA Sports Cup provided just that. 117K simultaneous viewers watched the group stage match between FUTWIZ vs Guild Esports, while 63.2K Average Viewers tuned into every match of the event. Drops have been enabled on every stream of the competition, which captivates even more viewers, and played an important role in the viewership numbers the event achieved so far. 

Twitch has been the only platform streaming the event, and English is by far the most popular language. The majority of viewers choose the official EA Sports Twitch channel to watch the competition. However, there are plenty of watch parties where fans can also watch the event. Curiously, most of the streamers that do these watch parties are FIFA players that are also participating in the event. Tekkz streams have been the most popular ones, with the Fnatic player being able to attract thousands of viewers to his broadcasts.

Viewership comparison of EA Sports Cup and other FIFA esports events 

As mentioned above, the EA Sports Cup viewership results are good, but when compared with the FIFAe Club World Cup 2022 they become amazing. Despite being just a qualifier, compared to last year’s main event, it increased the PV by an astonishing 289%. In the AV department, the same happened, with the metric having an increase of 427%. The tournament also had drops active, but it was officially broadcasted on the FIFAe channel. Unfortunately, it just didn’t manage to reach a wide audience. So now, the main broadcast of the event is conducted on the EASPORTSFIFA channel.

Saying EA Sports Cup numbers are fantastic is an understatement. If the qualifier is already achieving such great numbers, then we can expect the FIFAe Club World Cup 2023 to reach a very large audience, and perhaps even break some viewership records. It's already close to the 149K PV the FIFA eWorld Cup 2022 achieved, and it may surpass it in the playoffs. 

EA Sports Cup is already a success, but with the playoffs coming up, there is a very good chance it can enter the top ten list of most popular FIFA tournaments ever. This is great news for EA Sports and the FIFA esports scene. It proves the scene is alive and better than ever, and that fans are hungry for competitive FIFA. EA Sports Cup playoffs start on the 16th of January. They promise to be very exciting and to provide fans with memorable moments.