North America overtakes Europe in FNCS 2024 Majors viewership for the first time

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The esports scene for Fortnite is increasingly focusing on North America. Recently, the regional stages of the Fortnite Champion Series 2024 – Major 3 wrapped up, revealing that the American tournament has surpassed its European counterpart in viewership for the first time this year.

The Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) is the leading esports series for the battle royale game, featuring top players from North America, Europe, Brazil, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East. To qualify for the FNCS finals, players must secure high placements in regional majors, with each region hosting three of these tournaments. With the conclusion of FNCS 2024 – Major 3 the full list of participants for the Fortnite Champion Series 2024 is now confirmed.

Historically, major tournaments in North America and Europe draw the largest audiences, as these regions are the most influential in the game. In contrast, viewership in other regions is significantly lower and has shown a declining trend this season.

FNCS 2024 - Major 3: North America Viewership

The North American stage of the Fortnite Champion Series 2024 – Major 3 was held on July 27-28, showcasing 49 of the region’s top squads. The winners of FNCS 2024 – Major 3: North America were the duo Peterbot and Pollo from Team Exceed. Other notable players who made it to the finals include Clix, Bugha, Veno, EpikWhale, and other prominent esports stars. At the same time Mongraal and MrSavage did not qualify for the final tournament this time around.

The broadcasts of FNCS 2024 – Major 3: North America accumulated over 2.6 million Hours Watched, mainly thanks to many players streaming their matches on personal channels. The American major was covered across 59 channels, with Clix's channel drawing the most viewers.

The average viewership for FNCS 2024 – Major 3: North America was 127,200, with a peak of 310,000 viewers. This tournament achieved the second-highest peak viewership for English-language streams in July, only behind the Esports World Cup 2024 for Counter-Strike.

FNCS 2024 - Major 3: Europe

The champions of FNCS 2024 – Major 3: Europe were the duo of Austrian player vic0 and German player Flickzy. Several players from Eastern Europe and Germany also performed well, including t3enyy, Merstach, Vadeal, Malibuca, rezon ay, and others.

While FNCS 2024 – Major 3: Europe lagged behind its American counterpart in all major viewership metrics, it did have more unique streaming channels and offered a wider range of broadcast languages.

Viewership Dynamics of Europe and North America

The trends in FNCS 2024 can be easily observed through the performance of its three major tournaments. Europe was the clear leader at the beginning of the year, achieving the highest results in all key metrics: Hours Watched, Average Viewers, and Peak Viewers. FNCS 2024 – Major 1: Europe remains the most popular tournament of the season to date. While Europe maintained the lead through the second major, North America surged ahead by the third major.

It is crucial to recognize that the visibility of tournaments like FNCS 2024 is greatly influenced by community casting from the participating players. The more successful these player-streamers are, the better the overall viewership statistics for the tournament.

Europe and North America FNCS 2024 Majors comparison

For the main Fortnite channel, the average number of viewers for the European tournaments steadily declined from 31,300 to 9,600. In North America, there was also a decline, but it was less severe, falling from 36,300 to 17,800, with an increase to 22,500 by the third major. In summary, each subsequent European major attracted fewer viewers on the official channel, whereas the trend in North America was less consistent.

Other regions show a consistent downward trend: Brazil, Asia, and Oceania are significantly behind the leading regions, and viewership in the Middle East is minimal even compared to these underperforming areas.

The main Fortnite Champion Series 2024 event is set to take place on September 7-8 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. The top players from the majors will compete for a prize pool of $2 million. Last year’s tournament was won by the duo of American player Cooper and Canadian player Mero.