PGL Major Antwerp 2022 enters CS:GO history with 2m viewers

The Grand Final of PGL Major Antwerp 2022 has become the second most-watched match in CS:GO history, as more than 2 million concurrent viewers tuned in to spectate the battle of FaZe Clan against Natus Vincere.

The hype during Grand Final that took place on May 22 was surreal. Two teams — Natus Vincere, one of the most famous CIS representatives, and FaZe Clan, one of the top orgs in the USA and Europe — met in the final match.

Second-highest viewership in CS:GO

The final clash of the two CS:GO powerhouses was anticipated by many. Such confrontation, combined with the fact that the Major was one of the first big LAN events with a live audience after two years without in-person events, led to extensive attention from the community. Besides thousands of visitors on-site, the Major in Antwerp attracted a remarkable number of viewers at home. 

Apart from official broadcasts, the tournament was cast by numerous content creators, who brought their own audiences to watch the tournament. It is important to take this into account, as many spectators tend to only follow the broadcast of their favourite streamer. As a result, popular streamers can significantly impact the viewership of events they stream.

All these factors led to a new viewership record for CS:GO. According to data by Esports Charts, the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Grand Final was watched by more than 2,113,000 viewers at its peak. This number includes all platforms and all content makers who streamed the event. 

With the mark of 2 million, PGL Major Antwerp 2022 became the second most popular CS:GO tournament in history. The first place belongs to the previous PGL Major Stockholm 2021, which gathered 2.7 million concurrent viewers.

Silviu Stroie, Founder and CEO of PGL, commented: 

“We are delighted to see that all of our hard work has paid off, which has led us to have hosted the two most-watched Counter-Strike tournaments to date.”

Other records of PGL Major Antwerp 2022

In addition to the record in concurrent viewership, the Major in Antwerp also ended up as a CS:GO event with the second-highest number of hours watched accumulated — 68 million in total. Furthermore, more than 20,000 people watched the event live at Antwerps Sportpaleis, which makes the competition the largest indoor esports event of all time.

Even individual CS:GO communities hit their high spots — the Brazilian content maker Alexandre “Gaules” Borba garnered more than 700,000 concurrent viewers while streaming the Major and thus set a new record for his Twitch channel, as well as for the Brazilian CS:GO community.

New CS:GO Major is around the corner

Not even a week has passed since the end of PGL Major Antwerp and the CS:GO community already received hints about the next large CS:GO event from its organizers. To tease the fans, ESL recently posted a cryptic tweet, implying that the location for the next CS:GO Major could be Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.