IEM Cologne 2024 had a lukewarm opening stage with 30.9% less watch time than 2023
IEM Cologne, the yearly event known to fans as the “Cathedral of Counter-Strike” is back once again for a Summer of action. The event series has built a large reputation for itself in Counter-Strike, and is routinely one of the most popular events of the year. Esports Charts has collected the viewership for the first four days of the event, including the entire Play-In stage and the first day of the Group Stage.
IEM Cologne 2024 has shown a slight downturn in viewership for the event, although last year the event did host a particularly well-watched Play-In stage. The 2024 event has generated 7.09M Hours Watched so far, and maintained an average viewership of 173.2K AV for the first four days. The downturn in viewership is largely due to falling Portuguese-language viewership, which was previously a driving force for the event.
Although FURIA continued to be part of the event’s most popular match, viewership from Portuguese-language, including Brazilian, audiences just has not been as high. Famed Brazilian community caster Gaules has been hard at work co-casting the event, and his Twitch and YouTube Live channels remain some of the event’s most popular broadcasts.
Unfortunately for Counter-Strike, Brazilian fans have not shown the same passion for the esports title at this year’s Cologne event. Although the Play-In stage featured numerous Brazilian teams, and multiple of them qualified for groups, viewership has fallen for this key audience. Despite this, both Brazilian and Portuguese esports organizations were well represented in the opening day’s most popular matches.
FURIA’s game against Team Liquid on the event’s second day has been the most popular match, recording 256.6K Peak Viewers. Team Liquid have been winning some events recently, and bringing North American fans a team to cheer for. The match between the two created an ideal match to combine Portuguese-language and North American audiences, a winning formula for Counter-Strike in the past.
Portuguese roster SAW also reached 255.3K Peak Viewers for their match against G2 Esports. The most popular game of the Group Stage’s opening day, SAW took a surprising 2-0 victory over G2 Esports, who are usually considered one of the world’s top teams. The underdog victory for SAW was a highly popular moment for the event so far, especially as fans started to realise how the match was turning out.
FURIA appeared once again to finish off our ranking, with their game against HEROIC recording 251.7K PV. Although Portuguese-language viewership has fallen, it still remains one of the event’s most popular languages.
The viewership for the remainder of IEM Cologne will continue to rise as the event’s schedule progresses, and the teams who qualified directly for the event get a chance to show their worth. Russian-language and Ukrainian broadcasts have been generating significant viewership for the event as well, so keep an eye out for viewership of games featuring NAVI.
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