The BLAST Premier: World Final 2023 has recorded slight decreases in peak and average viewership compared to its 2022 edition.
According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the BLAST Premier: World Final 2023 garnered 361,936 peak viewers, around 16,000 less than the previous year.
Similarly, the World Final in 2023 has reported fewer average viewers (151,736) and watch hours (5.7m) than its 2022 predecessor, which garnered 162,465 average viewers and 8.3m hours watched.
The event once again took place in Abu Dhabi in December and featured eight of the top Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) teams. In the Grand Final, Team Vitality defeated FaZe Clan to secure itself the lion’s share of the $1m (~£790,000) prize pool. The series between Team Vitality and FaZe was also the most popular match of the tournament.
Despite this, Team Vitality was only the fourth most popular team when it comes to hours watched throughout the World Finals, garnering around 1.9m. The three most-watched teams using this statistic were FaZe Clan (2.1m), Natus Vincere (2m) and G2 Esports (1.9m).
For the World Final 2023, BLAST also secured a range of commercial partnerships. This included deals with the likes of Lynk & Co., Magnum and CS.MONEY.
Compared to other BLAST Counter-Strike events, the World Final 2023 is behind both its Spring and Fall Final in terms of peak viewership. Among all Counter-Strike tournaments of the year, it ranked 14th with the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 still being the most popular event, recording nearly 1.53m peak viewers. IEM Cologne and Katowice follow in second and third place, attracting 727,415 and 726,820 peak viewers each.
With the 2023 BLAST Premier season concluding, the tournament organiser is already pathing the way for the 2024 competitive season. In July, BLAST introduced a formal selection process for its esports event destinations in 2024. Moreover, it revealed the BLAST Premier 2024 calendar and format, featuring a total of seven tournaments.
