Fortnite Champion Series 2022 Invitational recap — a breath of fresh air for the scene

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Fortnite is one of the most popular games in the world and is arguably the biggest Battle Royale video game in history. It attracts thousands of people of all ages, that enjoy playing the game alone or with their friends. The game offers players the ability to play a more casual game mode, and just have fun with their friends, or work hard to become one of the best players in the world.  

Just like the game, its competitive scene had a meteoric rise, becoming one of the most popular ones in the esports industry in little time. In 2019, the second year of its competitive scene, Fortnite had one of the biggest esports tournaments ever, with Fortnite World Cup Finals having a $15 million prize pool, in an event that gathered the best players in the world. 

However, since then the Fortnite competitive scene saw a small decline. Despite still being very popular, and having tournaments with great prize pools, the game never did another edition of the Fortnite World Cup Finals, and now has The Fortnite Champion Series. The Fortnite Champion Series is a series of tournaments that take place during the whole year, with each region having its league. So there was no official World Cup until this year when the Fortnite Champion Series: 2022 Invitational, which took place on the 12th-14th of November, became the first major offline Fortnite event since 2019, and essentially becoming the second Fortnite World Cup in history. 

The Fortnite Champion Series: 2022 Invitational, which was organized by Epic Game and BLAST, with the Danish tournament organizer taking over the production. It brought together the 50 best duos from all around the globe, with all of them being invited. Mainly pro players attended the event, with players such as EpikWhale, former world champion Bugha, and Hellfire being some of them. The event happened in Raleigh, United States, from the 12th to the 14th of November. During the event, the teams played twelve games, with the scoring being based on the squad's placements and eliminations. In the end, it was the Polish duo of Setty and Kami, from Become Legends, that took the trophy home, finishing the event with 368 points. 

When it comes to viewership, the Fortnite Champion Series: 2022 Invitational was able to reach some good numbers, with 381K PV, 260K AV, and with its multiple broadcasts, the event was watched for 3 million hours. It became the most popular edition of the series, with 18K PV more than the second place. Worth noting, that it was also the edition with less airtime, being live for just a little over 11 hours. 

More than 100 channels broadcasted the event, with 46 of them having more than 1K Average Viewers, and many reaching 10K PV, which was very important for the viewership success the event was able to achieve. Another thing that boosted the viewership of the event, was the drops that were enabled on most of the channels that streamed the tournament. It gave viewers a chance to gain three new exclusive cosmetics, which captivated the attention of thousands of players. Round 1 of the event was the one that captivated viewers the most, with 381K PV tuning in to see the first major Fortnite LAN event in three years. 

The official Fortnite Twitch channel was the most popular and most watched of the tournament, with 94.6K PV, and 695K Hours Watched. Popular Fortnite content creator Mongraal, who watched party the whole event, was second in both metrics. Australian content creator aussieantics was third in both metrics. Spanish megastar thegrefg was also among the most watched streamers with 132K Hours Watched, as well as German caster and content creator amar, which broadcasts were watched for over 145K hours. 

   Viewership comparison to the most popular Fortnite esports events ever

It's true that the Fortnite Champion Series: 2022 Invitational was very important for the Fortnite esports scene, and even became the most popular edition of the series. However, it's still far from the viewership numbers reached by the five most popular esports events in the history of the game. Worth noting that we didn't take into consideration tournaments such as Twitch Rivals, or other streamers' competitions like Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am. As we can see the event was far from the 526K PV that would secure it a top-five place in the list and is nowhere near the astonishing 2.3 million PV reached in the Fortnite World Cup Finals, a number no other tournament in the discipline as come close to yet. 

However, it comes as a breath of fresh air for the Fortnite esports scene, proving that the game is still very popular, and that its scene has all the ingredients necessary to become one of the most popular ones in the esports industry once again. With good viewership results, great games, and a positive response by the Fortnite community to the event, we can wait to see more tournaments like the Fortnite Champion Series in the future, or, who knows, even a return of the Fortnite World Cup Finals.