IEM Sydney 2023 viewership

IEM Sydney 2023 was a really fun event to watch. This tournament showed us the excellent features but also the problems of Counter-Strike 2.

As was predicted, we’re still in beta and we’ll likely be in this phase for at least one more year.

What happened and what were the viewership numbers

That aside, the teams clearly enjoyed themselves and some of them even chose to experiment with the possibilities. Given that this event had a prize pool of just $250.000, anyone outside of top four didn’t make much money.

This motivated teams like Natus Vincere to just have fun. S1mple said he wouldn’t play until the game gets better so B1ad3 took his place and gave it a shot. As you might expect, it didn’t go very well. But Na’Vi’s opponents still struggled to win and needed three maps to end the battle.

FaZe Clan, a team that wasn’t expected to do well, ended up winning the tournament. The other Grand Final participant was Complexity Gaming. Both G2 Esports and MOUZ were bested in the semifinals despite being the group winners.

With all this novelty and excitement happening in just one tournament, the viewership was expected to be high. But apart from the Grand Final, which had 463.000 viewers at its peak, the rest of the tournament didn’t get much attention from the CS2 community.

And let’s not forget, we’re talking about a community of 20 million people. Most playoffs matches had between 200.000 and 250.000 viewers. That’s around 1% of the community. Clearly, esports doesn’t generate as much interest as it could. And that might have to do with the fact that the strategy is flawed.

There is a new king in Australia! 🇦🇺👑

Clocking in at 463K Peak Viewers, #IEM Sydney 2023 becomes the all-time most popular esports event in the country! 🎉

🦘 Jump into the nitty-gritty:https://t.co/SJEHthd0Qn pic.twitter.com/DK1c1lF1Q5

— Esports Charts 🇺🇦 (@EsportsCharts) October 23, 2023

It might also have to do with the fact that very little is done to promote tournaments. Valve could be actively advertising them inside the game. There are lots of tools that can be used to incentivize people to watch professional matches. Just give them a weapon case or some random drop and they’ll show more interest.

This isn’t being done and much of the community is made up of kids who don’t have the patience to watch others play. For an adult, the experience feels very different. And if you’re a high rank player yourself, seeing the brilliance of someone like ZywOo in action is an absolute delight. But not everyone thinks the same.

Header: Valve