The FACEIT Major 2018 was one of the largest eSports events of the year and it brought in a substantial viewership. In fact, it was one of the largest in eSports history and it is certainly worth taking a look at.
FACEIT Major record viewership
Following the conclusion of the CS:GO Major, FACEIT has released the viewership statistics for the event. As it turns out, the FACEIT Major brought in more than 1 million concurrent viewers for the Grand Finals match.
The results are not so surprising considering that FACEIT had forged partnerships to broadcast the tournament in multiple established traditional media. Specifically, the Sky Sports channel ran the Finals in the UK, while ODEON Cinemas featured live viewings of the tournament in dozens of locations in the United Kingdom. The announced partnership with Barcraft also brought the Major to hundreds of bars and cafes all over the world. But those viewerships combined still pale in comparison to those on YouTube and Twitch.tv.
The FACEIT Major was consistently the top stream on Twitch for its entire duration and the YouTube broadcast had anywhere between 20,000 and 100,000 viewers at any given time. At one point, the Twitch stream was just shy of 500,000 individual viewers. Over the course of the event, FACEIT’s Twitch channel received 57 million views and is now on track to become the fastest growing channel on the platform. The moment with the highest viewership rates was the Grand Final match between Astralis and Natus Vincere, grossing over 1 million viewers.
Viewership comparison of Champions Stage @FACEIT Major 2018 & @ELEAGUETV Major 2018. #CSGO pic.twitter.com/S3OORIcahF
— Esports Charts 🇺🇦 (@EsportsCharts) September 25, 2018
In light of this, the FACEIT Major has become the third most viewed eSports event in the history of the industry. It stands behind only the League of Legends 2017 World Championship and The International 2018 of Dota 2. Moreover, since it is a Valve-endorsed event, it secures Valve’s dominating position in the eSports world.
Doubtless, the FACEIT Major was a top-tier tournament and the viewership is apt to agree. It was so far, one of the largest CS:GO competitive events in history and in eSports, in general. It also has to be recognized that FACEIT made a great effort to promote the tournament, going as far as forging deals with traditional media such as Sky Sports, which only serves to extend the eSports viewer base. The FACEIT Major will surely be a precedent for future high-profile events and things are certainly looking up for the industry.
On all matches at FACEIT 2018, Betway esports offers odds. The open winner markets have been updated to reflect the remaining eight teams in the tournament.
