IEM Katowice 2025: Team Vitality Wins & Record Viewership

IEM Katowice 2025 kicked off the new Counter-Strike tournament season in spectacular fashion. The revamped Team Vitality roster secured its first championship title with Robin ‘’ropz’’ Kool joining the team, and the event set multiple viewership records across its broadcasts. Esports Charts highlighted the most exciting moments of the tournament.

IEM Katowice 2025 was the first major tournament (with a prize pool of $1 million or more) of 2025 and also served as the first big test for the newly updated team rosters — and not all of them passed with flying colors. For instance, Team Falcons, which added the legendary Nikola ‘’NiKo’’ Kovač to its lineup late last year, was knocked out after just two matches. Teams like G2 Esports and FaZe Clan fared a bit better but still fell short of making it to the playoffs.

IEM Trophy

Some of the most exciting matches of the tournament included the series between FaZe Clan and Eternal Fire, which went all the way to 47 rounds to determine the winner on Anubis. Another thrilling matchup was between Eternal Fire and The MongolZ on Mirage, where the teams played through 40 rounds. There were also some one-sided moments, like when Team Liquid absolutely crushed Wildcard Gaming 13-0 on Anubis. Overall, the tournament had plenty of intense series, many of which went into overtime.

Six out of 24 teams made it to the playoffs: the longest road was traveled by Eternal Fire and Virtus.pro, who started from the Play-In stage. The MongolZ and Team Spirit once again showed their strong form, joined by big names like Natus Vincere and Team Vitality. In the end, it was Team Vitality who claimed the IEM Katowice 2025 championship, taking down Team Spirit 3-0 in the final.

ropz and IEM Katowice 2025 trophy / Photo: HLTV

Team Vitality’s win at IEM Katowice 2025 was a huge milestone for the French organization and their new player, ropz. We had called his transfer one of the key moves heading into the new Counter-Strike season, and this victory is solid proof of that.

This win also meant a lot to the other members of Team Vitality. For example, captain Dan ‘’apEX’’ Madesclaire had competed in ten IEM Katowice tournaments throughout his career, and it took him 11 tries to finally take home the championship trophy. It was also a memorable tournament for Mathieu ‘’ZywOo’’ Herbaut, who earned his 21st MVP medal, tying the all-time record set by Oleksandr ‘’s1mple’’ Kostyljev. Also William ‘’mezii’’ Merriman made history as the first player from the UK to win the IEM Katowice championship.

apEX and IEM Katowice 2025 trophy / Photo: HLTV apEX and IEM Katowice 2025 trophy / Photo: HLTV

IEM Katowice 2025 Viewership Statistics

IEM Katowice 2025 became the most-watched tournament in the series by peak viewership. During the Grand Final between Team Spirit and Team Vitality, it drew 1,299,747 viewers at its peak. This marks the highest online peak for any non-Major Counter-Strike tournament and the best viewership ever for a tournament held in Poland — even surpassing the IEM Katowice Major 2019.

IEM Katowice 2025 Viewership Statistics IEM Katowice 2025 Viewership Statistics

IEM Katowice 2025 saw a 33.7% increase in peak viewership compared to last year, with the average number of viewers rising by 32.6%. The key factor behind the growth was the increase in broadcast channels, which went up from 108 to 153 — a 41.6% jump. Viewership grew across all major languages, including English, Russian, and Portuguese.

In fact, the top 5 most popular teams at IEM Katowice 2025 based on average viewership per match included a team that didn’t even make it to the playoffs! For this and other valuable insights, you can check out Esports Charts with a PRO subscription.

French broadcasts of IEM Katowice 2025 reached a peak of 95,169 viewers, setting a new record for the language in Counter-Strike. Naturally, the victory of the French team in the grand final didn’t go unnoticed by French fans.

Ukrainian broadcasts also saw great numbers, drawing 114,518 viewers at peak, which is the second-highest for the Ukrainian language in esports. A big part of this success came from Ukrainian streamer Mykhailo ‘’Leb1ga’’ Lebiga, whose broadcast of the match between Natus Vincere and Team Spirit became the second-most-popular stream in his channel’s history.

The Mongolian broadcast almost set a new record too, with 63,183 viewers during The Mongolz matches. It fell just short of breaking the record — during the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, the peak for the Mongolian stream was 63,235 viewers.

Most popular non-Major tournaments in Counter-Strike

Polish broadcasts didn’t perform as well this time around compared to IEM Katowice 2024 — average viewership dropped by half, and peak viewership fell by more than three times. This can be partly explained by the fact that there were no Polish teams competing in the tournament this year.

The most-watched channel for IEM Katowice 2025 was ESL’s official English-language Twitch stream. Leading the way among community casters was Russian streamer Vyacheslav ‘’buster’’ Leontiev, who peaked at 228,955 viewers during his broadcast of the Polish tournament’s final — the second-highest viewership in his channel’s history.

IEM Katowice 2025 delivered impressive viewership stats, setting records for individual languages and even for the tournament series as a whole. With so much discussion around the new tournament season and its format, events like this are especially meaningful for both the pro scene and the organizers.