The 2023 BLAST.tv Paris Major, the final Major to be held in CS:GO’s, recorded a peak viewership of 1.52m during its finals, making it the third most popular event in the title’s history.
The statistics, recorded by esports data platform Esports Charts, also see the Paris Major break into the top five CS:GO events when it comes to hours watched as well. In total, the event garnered 58.89m hours watched and an average viewership of 507,688 across its 116-hour air time.
Whilst the peak viewership is impressive, it is important to note that the BLAST.tv Paris Major failed to beat IEM Rio Major 2022, the game’s previous major, in average viewership and hours watched. IEM Rio Major, recorded 69.5m hours across 127 hours of airtime, with an average viewership of 548,100.
A BLAST representative told Esports Insider that viewership from BLAST.tv, the tournament organiser’s new viewing platform, was not counted by Esports Charts. The platform was heavily pushed during the event, with BLAST.tv allowing 4k streaming of the Major and a post-event show exclusively on the platform.
BLAST confirmed to Esports Insider that the company is working with Esports Charts to integrate its own platform’s statistics. Exact numbers have not been disclosed by BLAST as of this writing, and as such it is unclear how much higher the true viewership numbers are.
The most popular match-up was the grand finals between hometown esports organisation Team Vitality and Germany-based underdogs GamerLegion, with the former walking out victorious. With regards to average viewership, Team Vitality was the most popular organisation within the tournament, garnering around 666,000 average viewers. This was followed by Heroic (519,700) and FURIA (485,100).
Despite not being in the top five esports organisations through average viewership, GamerLegion’s matches did record the highest number of hours watched, totalling 10.9m throughout the event.
The next Major will see the introduction of a new era in Counter-Strike as the title moves on from Global Offensive into CS2. The Major, set to take place in 2024, will be held by PGL in Copenhagen.
