With a couple of prominent events headlining its early esports calendar in 2026, Counter-Strike 2 returned to the forefront of the industry in February 2026. These tournaments — IEM Kraków 2026 and Cluj-Napoca 2026 — turned a lot of heads within the community, and for good reason.
Team Vitality continued where it left off in 2025, securing both these championships to start the new season full of momentum. However, while the dominant French esports organization's successes helped both competitions reach landmark milestones, it was another popular side that generated maximum buzz, at least in terms of overall watch time.
FURIA began 2026 with a runner-up finish in the Polish event, which now serves as the new ESL flagship Counter-Strike event after succeeding the iconic Katowice tournament. And while its run in Romania was cut short before it could register another podium finish, the iconic Brazilian esports organization's performances created much hype among Portuguese-speaking viewers.
FURIA was one of the few Counter-Strike 2 sides to play ten or more matches in February 2026, spanning the two top-tier tournaments mentioned above. Across these 11 games, it accumulated 19.78 million Hours Watched (HW), far ahead of any other team.
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo & Co began the month with three straight wins in the IEM Kraków 2026 Group Stage, helping it qualify for the Playoffs. And these were easy matches, as the global roster had to contend with other favorite sides like The MongolZ and Natus Vincere.
The knockouts did not get any easier, as FURIA had to get past Team Spirit and Aurora Gaming to set up a Grand Final with Vitality. Ultimately, this game went in the French organization's favor, but it did reach 1.37 million Peak Viewers (PV) and the entire event totaled 40 million HW, both setting new all-time records for a non-Major Counter-Strike tournament.
A chance at redemption came soon after at the PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026, as FURIA looked to win its first prominent title this year. And it started pretty well, as the team coasted to a 3:1 record in the Group Stage, including series wins over PARIVISION and FUT Esports. The latter victory was extra sweet, as the Turkish esports organization had beaten FURIA in the Kraków events Group Stage.
However, this ecstasy was short-lived, with FURIA going down to The MongolZ in another rematch from Poland. This time, the fast-rising Mongolian side came out on top to end the Brazilian favorite's run in the Quarterfinals. Nevertheless, this series peaked at almost 615.4K viewers, the third-most popular one at this CS2 event, and the side had two entries on the top games by concurrent viewers table.
While finishing in the 5th-8th bracket in Cluj-Napoca would especially have been disappointing for FURIA, it received plenty of support from home fans. This ensured it ended as the second most popular Counter-Strike 2 side in February 2026, touching nearly 541,000 Average Viewers (AV) to only sit behind Team Spirit.
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