IEM Rio Major’s first day breaks viewership record

IEM Rio Major has surpassed all other CS:GO Majors in terms of Challengers Stage viewership with a peak of 745,304 concurrent viewers on the first day.

The opening day of the IEM Rio Major 2022, the most prestigious CS:GO tournament of the year, saw a record-breaking number of viewers. The event has already surpassed all expectations by breaking the viewership record with a peak of 745,304 concurrent viewers on the first day of the Challengers Stage. The 2021 PGL Major Antwerp had the previous record for most concurrent viewers during the Challenger stage, with just over 707,000 concurrent viewers. Moreover, the Rio major attracted over 457,000 views on average during the course of its 14.5 hours of airtime, according to data from Esports Charts. The event was live-streamed on many platforms and in a variety of languages. 

Esports Charts revealed that the peak viewership of the Portuguese and Brazilian streams of Gaules was 308,000 concurrent viewers, while the English stream also attracted around 308,000 concurrent viewers. Furthermore, according to Esports Charts, the super-charged matchup between Imperial and Vitality in round one of the challenger stage, which drew close to 700,000 viewers, appeared to be the reason for the rise in viewership. Although the crowd favorite Imperial Gaming lost the match to the French-Danish superteam 9-16, the impact of the match has certainly granted a much-needed boost to the event’s viewership.

Would Rio Major be able to break more viewership records?

The most-watched CS:GO tournament at the moment is the 2021 PGL Stockholm Major, which was the first Major to be played following the coronavirus epidemic. During the grand finals between NAVI and G2 Esports, a staggering peak of 2,748,434 concurrent viewers was recorded over numerous live streams in different languages, including Twitch and YouTube. Additionally, the event’s peak viewership was higher than the previous record set by ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017, by a staggering difference of 1,416,653 million concurrent viewers. Both the previous Majors were able to achieve a record-setting peak of more than two million viewers during the Grand Finals. 

It is expected that the Rio Major will grow even more in popularity once popular teams like Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team Liquid enters the battlefield during the Legends Stage, which will begin on November 5th with the top 16 teams. Until then, the 16 teams in the Challengers stage will compete for eight spots in the Legends stage for three more days. It remains to be seen if the Rio Major tournament can stay on track to trump those records and set a new milestone. 

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