ESL Pro League Season 22 kicks off with a 48% increase in peak viewership

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The Counter-Strike tournament season is heading toward its peak. With just a few weeks left before invitations go out for the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, teams worldwide are scrambling to rack up valuable VRS ranking points at different competitions. All eyes are now on ESL Pro League Season 22 in Stockholm, which kicked off yesterday.

The format of ESL Pro League Season 22 is the same as last season. As always, the action started with Stage 1, featuring challenger teams ranked below the top contenders. Sixteen teams are battling it out in this stage, and after five rounds of Swiss play, half will be knocked out while the other half move on to Stage 2, where they’ll face the higher-ranked squads.

The standout match of the first Swiss Stage round was HEROIC vs. Gentle Mates, which ended 2:1 in favor of Gentle Mates after a nail-biting overtime finish on the deciding map. Other key results included B8 Esports taking down Legacy and FURIA suffering a surprising upset at the hands of HOTU.

Day 1 Viewership Stats for ESL Pro League Season 22

On Day 1 of ESL Pro League Season 22, broadcasts racked up nearly 1.13 million Hours Watched, about 9.7% more than the opening day of last season, driven by a higher average viewership. Peak viewership also jumped significantly, up almost 50% compared to Day 1 of Season 21. Interestingly, in both seasons, the day’s most-watched match featured FURIA.

The stronger kickoff for Season 22 can be attributed to several factors. One key reason is the full shift to VRS-based invites, which has heightened viewer interest. Every series now matters more than ever, as even a single win or loss in Stage 1 can impact a team’s standing in the overall rankings leading up to the Major.

Second, the number of broadcast channels on Day 1 was higher than in the previous season. A standout contributor is Alexandre “Gaules” Chiqueta, the Brazilian streamer who has long been one of the most popular community casters in Counter-Strike — and his viewership has grown even more this season. On top of Twitch and YouTube, he’s now also streaming on Kick, giving fans even more ways to tune in.

ESL Pro League Season 22 is running from September 28 to October 12 in Stockholm at the ESL Studio. The tournament features a $400,000 prize pool. Fans can keep track of results and viewership stats on the Esports Charts report page.