IEM Dallas 2024 debut saw explosive viewership growth over last year

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The first day of IEM Dallas 2024 not only thrilled viewers with exciting matches but also showed a significant increase in viewership compared to the previous tournament in the series. This positive trend was particularly notable on the official English-language broadcasts and among community casters.

One of the biggest upsets of the day was 9z Team's victory over MOUZ, who currently hold the top spot in the HLTV.org world rankings. In contrast, 9z Team is ranked 40th, but they still manged to beat the recent ESL Pro League Season 19 and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 winners. Despite being in top form, the European team was not immune to defeat in a best-of-1 match. 

Following their victory over MOUZ, 9z Team also defeated Team Liquid, marking yet another significant achievement. Among other notable results, G2 Esports triumphed over Team Falcons but then suffered a loss to Team Vitality.

The match between G2 Esports and Team Falcons was the most popular on the first day, peaking at 247.8K concurrent viewers. The G2 vs. Vitality match also attracted significant attention, with just over 202.6K Peak Viewers.

The first day of IEM Dallas 2024 generated over 1.8 million Hours Watched, a 31% increase compared to the first day of IEM Dallas 2023. The overall peak concurrent viewership rose by 80.6% compared to the previous tournament, a surge likely due to the exciting matchups, as many games were played simultaneously. More importantly, the average number of viewers increased by nearly 53%.

The primary factor driving the growth in viewership was the popularity of ESL's official YouTube channel, which saw its average and peak concurrent viewership numbers double. Additionally, IEM Dallas 2024 featured several community casters, such as ohnepixel, one of the most popular English-language community casters, who did not broadcast during the first day of last year's tournament.

In the same context, it's worth mentioning the significant contributions of Russian-language streamers buster, SL4M, and dmitry_lixxx. The official Ukrainian broadcast on the cs2_maincast channel also showed remarkable progress, with peak concurrent viewers increasing from 2K last year to 10.1K this year.

The only notable decline in viewership compared to IEM Dallas 2023 was for Brazilian streamer Gaules, whose Twitch and YouTube numbers halved. The reason is clear: there are no Brazilian teams in this tournament, whereas Gaules' viewers were enthusiastic supporters of FURIA Esports last year.

IEM Dallas 2024 is taking place from May 27 to June 2. The prize pool for the tournament is $250,000. In addition to the cash prize, the winner will also secure a spot at IEM Cologne 2024. You can follow the viewership statistics on the event's coverage page.