The ESL Pro League Season 21 marks the first 2025 edition for the long-standing Counter-Strike series. It kicked off on March 1 with its Stage 1 matches, which have so far collected solid viewership, slowly building excitement for the soon-coming Stage 2. For 2025, ESL has two Pro League events planned for their esports calendar, and hopes are high for the ultimate playoffs stage of this event.
The first Stage 1 of the tournament seeds through 16 invited and qualified teams to find the top 8. The best of the first round of teams will play another stage against 8 stronger squads, and the winners of these matches advance to the Playoffs in mid-March. This new format is a result of Valve’s rulings on the Counter-Strike scene and introduction of the Valve Ranking System; ESL’s previous partnered teams format is a thing of the past.
The new Pro League format is finding a new balance for ESL to continue to host their long-standing series, which began a decade ago. While the prize pool for the circuit this year has been reduced significantly, many top teams agreed to attend and will soon take the stage for ESL’s new format.
For the opening two days, FURIA dominated viewership and secured the most popular games of both days. The Brazilian team reached almost 150,000 Peak Viewers for their match against Portuguese competitors SAW. Portuguese-speaking fans, including Brazilian-Portuguese, were crucial for the viewership results of the opening days. Outside of this spike in Portuguese-language, other teams such as Eternal Fire, HEROIC, and M80 also received strong viewership.
Other large demographics, such as English and Russian-language, were quieter, as their fan-favorite teams will not arrive until Stage 2. GamerLegion secured the first qualification spot in the early days, M80, SAW, Eternal Fire, FlyQuest, and MIBR close behind.
Stage 1 of the ESL Pro League Season 20 concludes this week on March 5, with the next stage already beginning this weekend. As the event proceeds and teams with strong audiences, such as NAVI, Team Spirit, G2 Esports, Team Vitality, and more, join in, viewership will likely climb to strong heights for the Pro League.
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