Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: The MongolZ exit, but redefine Mongolian esports viewership

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The first semifinal matchup of Counter-Strike’s Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 is set. MOUZ brought an end to The MongolZ’s Cinderella run, while Team Spirit cruised past Team Liquid in commanding fashion. The winners will now battle for a place in the Grand Final. Both matches delivered plenty of electrifying highlights and clutch moments, but the event has predictably drawn lower viewership than the Copenhagen Major, largely due to the less favorable time zone for European and North American audiences.

The playoffs kicked off with a showdown between the young prodigies of MOUZ and the tournament’s biggest surprise, The MongolZ, who had dominated their opponents in both group stages, including MOUZ. Early on, it looked like Garidmagnai "bLitz" Byambasuren’s team would keep their momentum going: The MongolZ held a commanding 11-5 lead on the first map and were just a round away from closing out Ancient. But MOUZ staged an incredible comeback, taking the win in overtime. The loss seemed to shake MongolZ’s confidence, and while they started the second map on a strong note, they ultimately couldn’t hold on.

The second match between Team Spirit and Team Liquid was no less competitive. However, Team Spirit maintained control for most of the series, only allowing Liquid to nearly mount a comeback at the end of the second map before closing it out in their favor. Spirit advanced to the next stage, while Liquid can still walk away with their heads held high: as Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken shared in a post-match interview, making the playoffs was the team’s minimum goal, and they succeeded in that.

Both matches drew similar viewership numbers, but the Spirit vs. Liquid showdown saw a slight edge in viewership. This was likely due to the earlier 7am CET start time for the MOUZ game, while the TS vs. Liquid match was more accessible, kicking off at 10am CET. The match peaked at over 570,000 concurrent viewers, making it the second most-popular game of the tournament so far. The top spot still belongs to the FURIA vs. FaZe Clan matchup, which hit over 590,000 concurrent viewers.

Interestingly, the tournament’s official channels were ahead of co-streamers in viewership during the MOUZ vs. MongolZ match. However, things changed during the second match: the event has a strong presence of Russian-speaking co-streamers (some streaming directly from Shanghai), and they surged in viewers during Spirit’s game, surpassing the official broadcasts in audience size.

In terms of overall metrics, the start of the Shanghai Major playoffs pales in comparison to the Copenhagen Major. With matches kicking off too early for European audiences and too late for those in the Americas, the decline in viewership is hardly surprising. Still, the tournament managed to hit an impressive milestone: a new global esports record was set for Mongolian-language broadcasts during the MongolZ match, peaking at 63,846 concurrent viewers. This broke the previous record, held by the PUBG Mobile Global Championship 2023, by 6%.

On the first day of the playoffs, the event also recorded its highest viewership so far among English-speaking audiences (234,600 Peak Viewers) and Russian-speaking audiences (228,500 Peak Viewers), along with notable peaks in several smaller demographic groups.

The Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 playoffs resume tomorrow, December 13. G2 Esports will take on HEROIC for a spot in the semifinals, followed by FaZe Clan vs. Vitality. Follow the tournament and its viewership trends with Esports Charts.