FNCS 2024 continues Fortnite resurgence as Europe Major becomes one of discipline's most successful events
The first few Majors of this year's Fortnite Championship Series have concluded, with the best players from across the globe to reach Platinum I rank in Ranked Battle Royale battling it out. Most of these events saw improvements from the corresponding competition held in 2023, continuing the good work of the FNCS 2023 Global Championship, which became the most popular event of the game since 2019.
The FNCS 2024 carries a total prize pool of $7,675,000 and includes three Majors, with the entire event culminating in an epic in-person showdown at the FNCS Global Championship 2024 to crown the latest world champions. Epic Games did not release any other details about the season-ending tournament apart from the dates, saying more information will announced later this year.
This year, there are minor tweaks to the tournament structure, the full details of which can be found here. Although the duos format has been retained, one significant change is that there won’t be any Last Chance Major, so participants need to qualify from one of the three FNCS 2024 Majors by reaching a qualifying position.
Viewership statistics of the first Majors of the year
The leader in terms of audience numbers is the FNCS 2024 - Major 1: Europe, which saw a huge spike in its year-on-year stats. It recorded 739.5 Peak Viewers, during Round 5 on Day 2 of the Finals, 8.04M Hours Watched, and 368.6K Average Viewers over an airtime of 22 hours.
These stats made it one of the biggest Fortnite tournaments of all time by watch time and popularity, finishing in the third spot on both tables. More astonishingly, when considering non-global and streamer events, it ends as the most successful competition ever, hitting the top spot for both metrics.
With some of the best players in the world coming from this region, there was heavy anticipation among fans as to who would come out on top and head to the Global Championship. At the end of 12 rounds of action in the Grand Finals held over two days, Malibuca and Merstach finished as top winners, one point ahead of Queasy and Th0masHD. Both duos will head to the season-ending finale that will be held on September 7 and 8.
A result of its record-setting figures was that the FNCS 2024 - Major 1: Europe did much better than its 2023 counterpart. The FNCS 2023 - Major 3: Europe hit 162.6K Peak Viewers, 3.4M Hours Watched, and 72.1K Average Viewers, meaning this year's edition increased by 354.7%, 136.1%, and 411%, respectively.
The change in format, which saw more matches added to the schedule, seemingly helped pull in more Fortnite viewers. Moreover, there were 37 more channels covering the matches live in 2024, which included the likes of Mrsavage, Mongraal, Solary, and Rubius.
There was also good news for the FNCS 2024 - Major 1: North America, which pooled together the East and West regions into one league this year. It still outdid both of last year's events combined watch time while also posting much higher peak concurrent viewership numbers.
It was the same case for the FNCS 2024 - Major 1: Brazil and the FNCS 2024 - Major 1: Oceania, which posted improvements on their corresponding tournaments from last year. The FNCS 2024 - Major 1: Asia, meanwhile, more or less retained the same numbers, which can be pinpointed to the reduced prize pool handed out this time around.
The only regional league to do worse this year was the FNCS 2024 - Major 1: Middle East, which saw declines of 278.7% and 91.2% in its watch time and popularity, respectively. The changes in schedule seemingly could not elicit a more favorable response from fans in this part of the world, with the absence of the most successful co-streamers from 2023 also proving to be a hit.
In terms of FNCS, the 2024 events have shone, with the Europe, NA, and Brazil competitions occupying the first, third, and fifth positions in terms of watch time. When considering peak concurrent viewers, these three names occupy the first, second, and fourth spots.
The last two seasons have undoubtedly seen an upturn in fortunes for Fortnite as a competitive segment, and that can only be good news for long-time fans of one of the trailblazers in the industry when it comes to structure, prize pool, and marketing of its esports events.
Overall, the first Major of the year across regions in the Fortnite Championship Series has proved to be a major hit, with the reduced airtime and tweaked format proving to be popular among fans worldwide. The European league, especially, showed just how much potential the discipline once again has following the success of its OG season update in December. Epic Games will hope this translates to a successful season overall come the end of 2024.
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