Alex T's maiden win helps Classic Tetris World Championship notch best viewership in two years
The Classic Tetris World Championship XV was held at the Pasadena Convention Center in California from June 7 to 10. The event was featured in the SoCal Retro Gaming Expo and had many top players from around the world, helping attract a healthy in-person and online crowd, thus putting up its best viewership numbers since 2021.
SoCal Retro Gaming Expo is known to be California's biggest video game expo 'that celebrates the love for gaming in all its forms.' It is also a massive vendor marketplace (with hundreds of dealers selling video games, collectibles, anime, and more) known for its esports competitions, free-play arcade and gaming area, cosplay, museum exhibits, and Special Guests, including Voice Actors, industry guests, and YouTubers.
Coming back to the Classic Tetris World Championship XV, it hit 14.3K Peak Viewers during the Finals on June 10. It was when Alex T defeated dogplayingtetris 3:2 in a close encounter to emerge as the champion at the biggest Tetris event of the year.
Readers must note that Alex T is one of the best Tetris players of all time and has numerous records to his name. He is also a multiple-time Classic Tetris Monthly Masters winner, with all this culminating in his first world championship win in Pasadena after multiple attempts.
The winner took home $6,250 out of a total prize pool of $32,048, while the runner-up became richer by $4,250. With two stages — Qualifying and Bracket — and 128 players in all, this S-Tier Tetris tournament was able to record 151.3K Hours Watched and 4.9K Average Viewers over around 31 hours of airtime.
Defending champion Fractal161 could only finish in the 9th-16th bracket while 2020/2021 champion dogplayingtetris' wait to add to his two world crowns will last another year. With a majority of the participants being from the US, the top ten had a very American look to it, with only one — — Sidnev — name not coming from here.
Looking at viewership in the CTWC, the Classic Tetris World Championship XV did the best numbers since the 2021 Classic Tetris World Championship. It recorded 239.5K HW and 22.7K PV, which were not as high as the record-setting 2020 edition but did a good job following up on the series' most successful event.
What helped the 2024 iteration see such a rise was the fact that it was live broadcast on both Twitch and YouTube, a departure from the rest of the competitions held in the CTWC. The only other tournament to be covered on both live-streaming services was the inaugural one in 2018.
Moreover, there was a special Special Event held on June 8 that featured the game's top players and a few celebrity guests that fans tuned in to watch. This single elimination exhibition was won by PixelAndy, who eased past blue scuti 3:0 in the Grand Final.
However, the main attraction was none other than Logan Paul, the boxer-cum-podcast host-cum WWE Superstar. He lost 0:2 in the Semifinals to blue scuti but helped bring in a lot of his followers to a game they may not have been familiar with beforehand.
It also has to be mentioned that there were a lot more side activities for fans in attendance and those watching from home could enjoy, including a Tetris Escape Room, a Board Gamer Station, and a Quiz Round.
Overall, it was a good end to the season for lovers of a game that has defined multiple generations and continues to pull in a niche crowd among the explosion of competitive video games today. With the world championship also offering a higher prize purse than ever, fans can expect the discipline to come back better and stronger.
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