BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 Stage 2 viewership jumps by 88% as top names enter fray

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The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 saw its first stage conclude on June 6, with Stage 2 under the spotlight until June 10. With fresh, more prominent teams joining the action in the new phase, the event's viewership witnessed a surge, which is likely to continue as we reach the business end of the year's first Counter-Strike Major.

The first two days of Stage 2 outdid all the main metrics of the three-day Stage 1 handily, led by matches involving FaZe Clan. Crucially, matches in the second stage were much more consistently watched by audiences than the first one, as seen in the fact that the average number of live viewers shot up by 88.35% as the top teams began their campaigns.

The most popular game from this phase touched 917,556 Peak Viewers (PV), which was 87.5% higher than the top entry by the same count from the first stage. Despite significantly fewer matches being played so far in Stage 2 of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, the total watch time is already nearly on par with Stage 1. This is largely thanks to a sharp increase in Average Viewers (AV), as more fans tuned in to each match on average.

  Viewership comparisons between the first two stages of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025   

As mentioned earlier, the start of the campaign for many top names was a major facilitator for these viewership increments. No team drew more attention than FaZe Clan, with all three of its matches landing in the event’s top five most-watched games so far. The effect that the legendary Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev has on any CS event's audience reach remains as strong as ever.

Fans also saw Team Falcons in action, with the Saudi Arabian organization led by former G2 Esports running buddies Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač. This new roster has shown a lot of promise this year and remains one of the dark horse picks to do something special in Austin.

Russian powerhouse Virtus.pro kicked off its campaign in spectacular fashion, sitting joint-top of the fledgling Stage 2 table with three wins out of three. There was also Brazilian favorite FURIA's debut, with Portuguese-speaking audiences from the country also keenly following the journey of the relatively unknown Legacy, surprisingly atop the Stage 2 leaderboard at the time of writing.

The second stage of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 will run until June 10, with the top eight proceeding to Stage 3. This phase will see renowned esports organizations like Team Vitality, Natus Vincere, and Team Spirit join the fray, and fans can keep up to date with happenings on the event's page.