Last weekend saw the conclusion of Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Cologne, an eminent yearly CS:GO tournament taking place in Cologne, Germany.
The tournament saw over 700,000 peak viewers, making it the second most-watched CS:GO tournament in 2023 after the Paris Major, according to esports viewership platform Esports Charts.
The 2023 edition saw G2 Esports take down ENCE in the grand finals, a game that brought a total of 727,000 concurrent viewers — the tournament’s peak. IEM Cologne 2023 also had just over 291,000 viewers on average across its 101 hours of air time.
When compared to the 2022 edition of IEM Cologne, peak viewership has dropped considerably from 1.2m — but the average viewership figure was higher this year.
IEM Cologne is one of the most popular CS:GO tournaments in the world, taking place regularly since 2014, when it started as ESL One Cologne. The event is known for its atmosphere and overall impact on the CS:GO esports ecosystem, similarly to IEM Katowice, another popular CS:GO tournament taking place in Europe.
The 2023 edition of IEM Cologne is the second most-watched CS:GO event of the season, just narrowly edging out IEM Katowice by a slim margin. This also makes IEM Cologne 2023 the highest non-Major CS:GO event in 2023.
Some of the event’s notable commercial partners included 1xBet, DHL and Monster Energy.
Although the result is good when viewed from this perspective, it must be noted that previous editions of the event saw much better numbers. For example, IEM Cologne 2021 saw 842,000 peak viewers and the 2022 edition was the most-watched edition ever.
There is still a handful of large CS:GO events taking place in 2023 that might break the record, for example the upcoming finals of the ESL Pro League, though the Counter-Strike community is currently looking towards the transition to CS2 — which could happen any day now.
Right now, IEM Cologne 2023 sits at 18th place of most popular CS:GO events according to Esports Charts.
