IEM Cologne 2023 becomes the most popular non-Major CS:GO tournament in 2023

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IEM Cologne 2023 with a prize pool of one million dollars ended on August 6. The tournament, which many consider to be the main event of the summer in CS:GO, ranked second by Peak Viewers this year, only surpassed by the Paris Major. In terms of total Hours Watched and Average Viewers on broadcasts, it surpassed all previous championships held in Cologne.

In total, 24 teams from countries around the world competed in IEM Cologne 2023. They played in three stages: Play-In, Group Stage, and Playoffs. One unexpected result was the early elimination of Team Liquid — one of the best teams from North America — it didn’t even make it past the Play-In stage. It's obvious that the team has not had enough time to adjust after the reshuffle.

FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere also didn’t make it out of the Group Stage, although these teams have regularly made it to the Playoffs in major tournaments and even played in the Grand Final at IEM Cologne 2022. Heroic, currently taking first place in the global ranking by HLTV.org, underperformed as well: cadiaN's team once again lost in the crucial Danish derby against Astralis. The latter deserves special mention because Astralis became the only team to make it from Play-In to the Playoffs semifinals.

Six teams reached the final stage: Team Vitality, Cloud9, Heroic, Astralis, ENCE, and G2 Esports. In the decisive match, G2 Esports defeated ENCE with a score of 3:1. The winner received $400K and a spot in IEM Katowice 2024. NiKo became the tournament's MVP.

IEM Cologne 2023 Viewership Statistics

IEM Cologne 2023 overall statistics

The IEM Cologne 2023 matches accumulated 29.5 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number during the broadcasts reached 291.8K, while the Peak Viewership number was recorded at 727.4K. The Grand Final between G2 and ENCE, which had 200K Peak Viewers more than the semifinals, became the most popular match of the tournament. 

Most popular teams at IEM Cologne 2023

Four representatives of the Playoffs and one team from the Group Stage made the list of the Top 5 most popular teams of IEM Cologne 2023 based on Average Viewers per match. The leader had a lead of approximately 77K Average Viewers over the others. As for the other interesting facts, during IEM Cologne 2023, teams 9INE and The MongolZ set personal records for Hours Watched, including majors. ENCE also updated its record-breaking numbers for Hours Watched, Average and Peak Viewers at non-major tournaments.

Most popular broadcast channels at IEM Cologne 2023

The games of IEM Cologne 2023 were covered on over 100 unique channels, including official broadcasts and community caster streams. The most popular languages for the broadcasts were English, Portuguese, and Russian. During IEM Cologne 2023, a record was also set for the Burmese language (the official language of Myanmar) in the discipline — two Facebook broadcasts combined reached 573 Peak Viewers.

Most popular streaming platforms at IEM Cologne 2023

If we look at the distribution by platforms, Twitch accumulated 4.5 times more Hours Watched than YouTube. Additionally, separate channels on Facebook Gaming and Kick covered the tournament.

Comparison Of IEM Cologne 2023 With Other Tournaments

Most popular CS:GO tournaments in 2023

IEM Cologne 2023 became the second tournament by Peak Viewers in 2023: it was twice surpassed by BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, which attracted over 1.5 million PV. The Average Viewers situation is similar — only the Major in Paris was able to surpass the German tournament. Comparing IEM Cologne 2023 with previous tournaments in Cologne, it ranked third in terms of Peak Viewers, behind the championships in 2021 and 2022.

Most popular CS:GO tournaments in Cologne

The peak viewership of IEM Cologne 2023 dropped by approximately 42% compared to IEM Cologne 2022. Such a significant difference is primarily attributed to the composition of the finalists. Last year, FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere, two highly popular esports clubs with a long history of personal encounters in international tournaments, competed for the title. They had a very intense series that went all the way to the fifth map. However, this year, the composition of the finalists was far less 'media-friendly', and the final match lacked as much suspense.

IEM Cologne 2023 fell behind IEM Cologne 2022 in peak viewership, but surpassed it in total Hours Watched and Average Viewers. Overall, in the early stages, IEM Cologne 2023 outperformed IEM Cologne 2022 in all metrics, but the situation in the Playoffs drastically changed in terms of Peak viewership. As mentioned above, this happened because many media teams simply did not make it to the final bracket. Additionally, G2 Esports was the clear favorite in the decisive match, and at the start of the series against ENCE, it confidently took the lead (quickly won the first two maps). All of this greatly impacted the intrigue of the entire match and influenced its Peak Viewers statistics.

Before IEM Cologne 2023, many teams made roster changes, so it was difficult to predict their strength and results at the German tournament. The participants of the event did not showcase their optimal form because the updated lineups hadn't had time to fully synergize yet. It is possible that teams will work on their mistakes before the upcoming Gamers8 2023, which will take place from August 16 to 20 in Saudi Arabia.