The finals of the Fortnite Champion Series 2023 Global Championship (FNCS Global Championship) concluded over the weekend in the Royal Arena at Copenhagen, Denmark.
The event was the most-watched Fortnite event in several years, attracting more than 720,000 peak viewers, according to data platform Esports Charts. This makes it the fourth most-watched Fortnite event in history.
The event is the culmination of the 2023 FNCS season, Fortnite’s top-flight series. The tournament took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, and saw the American/Canadian duo of Cooper and Mero win the event, taking home $1m (~£820,000) in prize money. The event was a success in terms of viewership, attracting around 720,000 peak viewers and 375,000 average viewers across over 15 hours of air time.
The most-watched match was the final round of the tournament, but peak viewership was strong throughout the tournament, ranging from 646,000 for the first round to 722,000 in the final match.
The viewership numbers make this by far the most-watched Fortnite event in 2023, but also one of the most-watched in the game’s history. According to Esports Charts, the tournament comes in as fourth in terms of viewership, with the top three spots held by events from 2018 and 2019, such as the World Cup 2019 Finals which is still the most-watched event in the game’s history.
The event showcased that the new format of the FNCS was a good decision. The inclusion of Major tournaments spread across the season and the return of a single large-scale LAN event as the final event of the season helped boost the viewership and bring Fortnite back after a relatively quiet period that was affected by the pandemic and its fallout.
The LAN event was produced by BLAST, and featured a trophy made by glassware and jewellery manufacturer Swarovski.
