Esports World Cup 2024 became a new competitor for top-level viewership in StarCraft 2 esports

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As part of this year’s Esports World Cup series, StarCraft II received one of its most popular events of the year, and its first $1,000,000 prize pool. The event took place from the 14 to the 18 of August 2024, in Riyadh. The tournament brought StarCraft’s best, with those qualified earning their spots from their performances in pro circuits, as well as directly qualifying for this event. 

The event began with a 16-player group sage, before advancing to a knockout bracket, and finally, a top four. Clem of Team Liquid was the lucky champion to take home $400,000 and the first ever Esports World Cup StarCraft II title. The French player is one of StarCraft’s most prolific players, and his result at this event was watched by 60.9K Peak Viewers.

The grand final of the tournament between Clem and Serral was the tournament’s most popular moment. Apart from that, other final four matches made the cut, as well as Serral’s group stage match against herO. Both players are well-known competitors, and their clash in the early stages of the event drew 37K Peak Viewers.

The event’s showmatch centred around casters and commentators participating in a free-for-fall modded gamemode. The gamemode added additional win conditions, and the event was held between the semifinals and grand final. The viewership of this showmatch was helped by its scheduling during a particularly exciting stage of the playoffs, and in total it received 39K Peak Viewers. 

Most popular Starcraft II events of 2024, by Hours Watched & Peak Viewers

With 60.9K PV and 1.2M Hours Watched, the Esports World Cup 2024 was the second-most-watched StarCraft II event of 2024. The EWC event fell behind IEM Katowice 2024, which received about 50K more Hours Watched and 16K more Peak Viewers. The IEM Katowice series has consistently been the most popular SC2 tournament of the year for over 5 years at this point, and landing in second place is nothing to scoff at for the EWC. 

Building on top of the success of Gamers8 in 2023, the EWC was able to host the second-most-popular SC2 event of 2024, and even challenge the previously dominating IEM Katowice series. If SC2 continues to appear at Esports World Cup events in the future, the series could likely become the premiere yearly event for the esports title, and potentially its most-watched event of the year.