Brazilian viewers show importance as Virtus.pro clinches Roobet Cup 2023

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The second edition of the Roobet Cup was held from October 25 to November 2, with Virtus.pro emerging as the champion. It was not as successful as its predecessor in terms of viewership, but the numbers point to the emergence of another major player to the list of exciting competitions on the annual Counter-Strike calendar.

The 2023 edition saw ten of the top 20 teams in the HLTV rankings battle a bunch of talented underdog sides, all of whom participated based on invitations from the organizer. In the Playoffs Grand Final, Virtus.pro eased past Monte 2:1 to top the podium and take home $150K out of a total prize pool of $250K, with the latter pocketing $50K.

  Essential stats and most popular games from the Roobet Cup 2023   

The Roobet Cup 2023 hit 155K Peak Viewers during the Playoffs Semifinals between FURIA Esports and Virtus.pro, which the latter won 2:1. As two of the more followed and successful on the circuit, there was quite a lot of demand for this clash, with the two sides also appearing multiple times on the list of five most watched games.

Intriguingly, two of the five matches in the above table were from the Group Stage, with both involving the Brazilian side. Of course, with legendary CS:GO streamer Gaules live steaming the action and following sides from his country, many fans tuned into his channel and contributed to this FURIA Esports’ success. Moreover, the summit clash was only fifth here, pointing to the drop in interest among viewers after the prominent names fell away towards the end of the tournament.

With none of the big names making the Semifinals of the Knockout Stage, audiences seemed to switch off a bit as the showpiece match played live. However, it did continue the Ukrainian side Monte's gradual rise this year, which also meant this CS2 competition drew 3.1M Hours Watched and 55K Average Viewers across 57 hours of airtime.

There was only ever going to be one topper when it came to the most popular side, and it had handsome leads over every other entry on this table. What might surprise readers is the name that came second, as it usually does not make such rankings even though the region is known for its love of all things FPS.

One massive stat of note was the spike in numbers for Ukrainian, thanks mainly to the involvement of leniniw, apart from the amazing display of Monte. The East European language did not even figure on the charts at the Roobet Cup 2022 but jumped up to fifth in terms of peak concurrent viewership and seventh for watch time, with the sought-after caster contributing entirely to these numbers thanks to his coverage of the Grand Final.

Additionally, English and Spanish saw their viewership stats decline significantly in 2023, especially in the watch time and popularity charts. One of the reasons for the latter’s fall was forg1 not live broadcasting the event as much as he did last year.

  How the two editions of the Roobet Cup stack up against each other viewership-wise   

This year's edition was not as successful as the last, and that was mostly to do with the kind of teams on display and the general performances of the more popular ones. The absence of the likes of FaZe Clan, Cloud9, ENCE, and Complexity Gaming seemed to affect the viewership dynamics. These sides chose to participate in the simultaneously occurring Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where the prize purse is double the Roobet Cup 2023, so there’s definitely a case to be made for the latter competition not being hosted at the most opportune time.

Many Portuguese-speaking fans witnessed the action live for the always-in-demand FalleN, who played for Imperial Esports at this competition last year but turned out for FURIA Esports this time. Moreover, many sides were playing their first tournament under the CS2 banner, including Heroic, Astralis, and Ninjas in Pyjamas, but their poor displays alongside the other popular organizations like Team Spirit and Fnatic reduced enthusiasm among online spectators to watch the entire event.