BLAST Premier World Final continues year on year viewership gains

BLAST esports
Image credit: BLAST / Konkol Michal

The BLAST Premier World Final 2024 concluded last weekend in Singapore, and recorded an increase in viewership compared to the 2023 edition, but saw a drop when compared to other BLAST events this year.

The event saw a peak of 556,000 viewers, according to data platform Esports Charts, which is an increase of around 200,000 peak viewers when compared to the 2023 World Final.

The event’s viewership was indeed better than the same event last year, but lower than some of other BLAST events in 2024. This makes the tournament the eighth-most watched BLAST CS2 event of all-time, behind both the Spring and Fall Finals of 2024.

The World Final 2024 had an average of 221,000 viewers, an increase of around 70,000 when compared to 2023, and around one million more hours watched. In comparison, the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2024, which concluded in late September 2024, had a peak of 900,000 viewers and 303,000 viewers on average.

One reason for the lower viewership is the absence of NAVI, a fan-favourite team, for the majority of the tournament. The Ukrainian organisation was knocked out during the group stage, leaving finalists Team Spirit as the most-watched team of the event, despite not winning it.

G2, the winners of the World Final, had almost one million less hours watched than Spirit. In addition, the location of the tournament, Singapore, affected the viewership due to the time zone difference between the regions where CS is usually the most popular in.

The BLAST Premier World Final is the culmination of the BLAST Premier season that takes place throughout the year via Groups and Finals events. This time around, the event took place in Singapore after two years in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

It is also the last BLAST event before the changes in rules announced by Valve take place, forbidding teams from partnering with tournament organisers exclusively. Due to this BLAST announced its new circuit which will take place from 2025.

Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.