FNCS Global Championship became the most popular Fortnite tournament since 2019

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On September 7, the French city of Décines-Charpieu hosted the FNCS 2025 Global Championship, Fortnite’s premier tournament of the season. The broadcasts attracted a massive audience of battle royale fans, with viewership topped only by two championships back in 2018-2019, when the game was at the height of its popularity.

The FNCS 2025 Global Championship brought together the top Fortnite trios from around the world, each earning their spot through standout performances at regional Majors. Players competed for a $2 million prize pool, with Europe dominating the competition — particularly teams from Poland, Russia and the Scandinavian countries. North America struggled, with no team finishing higher than fifth place. Leading the way were the Gentle Mates players, who made up most of the trios that secured first and second place.

The FNCS 2025 Global Championship title went to Andrejs “Merstach” Piratovs (Gentle Mates), Aleksa “Queasy” Cvetkovic (Twisted Minds), and Egor “SwizzY” Luciko (Gentle Mates). Their tournament victory earned them a combined $400,000 prize.

FNCS 2025 Global Championship Viewership Statistics

The FNCS 2025 Global Championship set several new viewership records. At its peak, the tournament attracted 954,473 live viewers, marking a milestone for modern Fortnite esports. Only the Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am 2018 and the Fortnite World Cup 2019 Finals saw higher numbers, thanks to celebrities and streamers competing alongside professional players.

Most popular Fortnite tournaments

Second, FNCS 2025 Global Championship was streamed on 770 unique channels, making it one of the highest broadcast numbers in Fortnite’s history. For comparison, last year’s FNCS 2024 matches were shown on less than 200 channels, almost four times fewer.

Compared to last year’s FNCS, the tournament’s average viewership jumped 25.2%. Total watch time also rose by 7.9%, despite the event having fewer broadcast hours this year.

When it comes to broadcast languages, French saw a huge jump at the FNCS 2025 Global Championship, becoming the second most popular language after English. The tournament was held in France and featured coverage from top French streamers like Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein, co-owner of Gentle Mates. French viewership rose from 8.6% to 17.7%, with Gotaga’s channel leading all others in viewership. Japanese and Arabic also saw increased audience share, while German and Italian streams experienced a slight decline.

FNCS Global Championship viewership dynamics

Fortnite is steadily reclaiming its place in both esports and livestreaming. The FNCS Global Championship has set a new viewership record for the third consecutive year. Additionally, Fortnite ranks sixth among the most popular esports games in 2025 in terms of peak online tournament audiences. It also holds the third spot among games for total prize money awarded so far this year.