New platforms and community casters helped PUBG Nations Cup 2024 become game's most popular tournament in five years

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PUBG Nations Cup 2024 wrapped up in South Korea on Sunday, showcasing a premier All-Stars tournament for national teams in PUBG: Battlegrounds. The South Korean team emerged as champions once again, and this year’s event drew an impressive audience, achieving the highest viewership numbers in the past five years. For more insights, refer to the report from Esports Charts, the official viewership data provider for the PUBG Nations Cup.

Founded in 2019, the PUBG Nations Cup brings together top national teams for an elite competition. In 2024, the tournament featured 16 teams from the Americas, Asia, Europe, and APAC. After 18 intense rounds, the South Korean team secured the highest score for kills and placements, narrowly surpassing the USA, which finished just one point behind.

This victory marks the second time South Korea has won the PUBG Nations Cup, having also claimed the title last year with a commanding lead. Notably, for the second consecutive year, the tournament's best player was South Korean e-athlete Seoul, a member of Dplus.

The PUBG Nations Cup 2024 amassed over 3 million Hours Watched, marking a 65% increase from last year's tournament. Other key metrics also saw substantial growth: the average viewership for this year's broadcasts rose by 62%, and peak viewership surged by 121.7%.

This year’s PUBG Nations Cup achieved the highest audience reach for PUBG Esports in the past five years. The only tournament with higher numbers was the PUBG Global Invitational 2018, which attracted over 757,800 Peak Viewers.

Most popular PUBG: Battlegrounds tournaments by Peak Viewers

What fueled the impressive viewership numbers for the PUBG Nations Cup 2024? Firstly, the tournament was streamed on several new platforms this year, including SOOP, CHZZK, and NimoTV, with some broadcasts even appearing on SteamTV. These new platforms contributed approximately 14% of the total watch time for the event.

Secondly, viewership on the official YouTube channels saw significant growth, especially on those broadcasting in Vietnamese and Thai. TikTok streams set a new record for viewership in PUBG, and AfreecaTV's share of the total viewership rose from 3.4% to 11.3%.

The PUBG Nations Cup 2024 became one of the most popular tournaments among Korean viewers this year, falling only behind major League of Legends competitions. The share of Korean-language streams increased from 14.1% to 18.9%, and the number of viewers on Korean streams reached a record high for PUBG: Battlegrounds, surpassing even the VCT 2024: Masters Shanghai.

Another major factor in the rise in viewership was the addition of new community casters. The number of unique channels covering the tournament grew by 41.9% this year, with independent streamers like Bomman, rrvv17, and wtcn drawing substantial audiences.

Overall, the PUBG Nations Cup 2024 is reclaiming its prominence. The introduction of new platforms and community casters has had a positive impact on the tournament's viewership statistics. Meanwhile, the series is becoming less reliant on Twitch, the leading esports streaming platform: Twitch’s share of the PUBG Nations Cup 2024 viewership nearly halved, dropping to just 17%.