Asian audience takes a back seat as EWC x PUBG concludes with American high
The PUBG leg of the recently concluded Esports World Cup 2024 came to an end on August 25 at the BR Arena near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. While one of the game's more popular events this year, it could not reach higher viewership numbers due to the less-than-decent performances of teams from its more crucial regions.
This $2 million competition had two stages — Group Stage and Grand Finals — spread across five days. At the end of numerous matches and highlight-worthy moments, it was Soniqs who came out on top, claiming the trophy and a winner's purse of $700,000. It was the American esports organization's second straight win in Saudi Arabia, having also won the PUBG Global Series 2023 Phase 2 held as part of the erstwhile Gamers8 event.
The EWC x PUBG Grand Finals was a taut affair, with only three teams crossing the 100-point barrier and just nine points separating first to third. However, what helped the NA side emerge victorious was its three Winner Winner Chicken Dinners, the only team to do so, with three more podium finishes ensuring it did enough to etch its name in history.
This PUBG tournament reached 105.7K Peak Viewers during the second-last round of the Grand Finals when FaZe Clan secured its second WWCD to bring itself back into contention for the title. However, it could only muster a seventh-place finish in Round 12 to finish third, with the event also notching 1.4M Hours Watched and 52K Average Viewers over 27 hours of airtime.
Vietnamese continued to be the game's top language, taking up almost half of the overall watch time at this competition. It helped that there were three representatives from the country who all entered the Grand Finals, although only one of them — All Gamers Global — could finish within the top ten.
This inability of sides from Vietnam to make their strength count in the final standings was one reason the EWC x PUBG did not reach a larger number of online spectators. For comparison, the PUBG Global Series 2024 Phase 3 ended as one of the game's most popular events of the game on the back of the success of CERBERUS Esports and fans from this Southeast Asian nation.
The game also banks heavily on Asian audiences to do well, as seen at the PUBG Global Series 2024 Phase 4, but that was not the case here. Korean was the only other language from this region to make the cumulative top five of the event's overall watch time, thanks to Danawa e-sports and Freecs finishing in the top six.
Pokamolodoy also deserves a mention for driving up viewership among the Russian audience. The PUBG Partner and streamer almost single-handedly put the language in the top three for watch time despite the highest finish for a side from the country being BetBoom Team's 14th.
As mentioned earlier, the EWC x PUBG ended as the third most popular PUBG tournament this year, behind the two successful PGS entries. Despite being one of the biggest victories for the Americas region at any global tournament in the game, the absence of more interest from the main market, Asia, seemed to have held it back.
Nevertheless, PUBG continues to recover lost ground in terms of viewership, with 2024 witnessing the title reach its highest peak viewership since 2019. If nothing else, the EWC 2024 has given us a glimmer of what is to come at the season-ending PUBG Global Championship 2024, to be held in Kuala Lumpur in December
In the meantime, fans have other prominent tournaments to look forward to, including the PUBG Nations Cup 2024 and the PUBG Clan Cup. These events have the potential to get more viewers than the EWC x PUBG, so there's lots to look forward to for fans.
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