PUBG EWC 2026 average audience grows despite lower peak viewership

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The PUBG: Battlegrounds tournament at the Esports World Cup 2026 produced a mixed year-over-year result. Peak viewership declined, but the event attracted a six-figure average audience and generated more watch time than in 2025.

The gain in watch time was not just a byproduct of a longer broadcast. Airtime increased by only 6.5%, far less than the jump in Hours Watched. That higher baseline audience shows viewers stayed tuned in throughout the event, even if the single highest peak fell short of last year's record.

Vietnamese broadcasts drove most of that steady engagement. They accounted for 45.7% of total Hours Watched, exceeding English and Thai streams combined. Vietnamese channels also held the top two spots for peak audience, with 500BROS PUBG VN leading by a wide margin.

Vietnamese team The Vicious fueled much of that local turnout. They sat in 15th place after the first day of the Finals before climbing back into contention and winning the last game with a Chicken Dinner. That final win lifted them from sixth to second place overall, keeping fans invested until the last broadcast minute.

The drop in Peak Viewers does not mean overall interest was down. EWC 2026 did not hit the single high point of the 2025 edition, but it drew a larger typical audience and logged far more total Hours Watched.

In practical terms, the audience became less concentrated around one peak and more consistent across the tournament as a whole, with Vietnamese viewership playing the central role in that shift.