The 2025 PUBG Nations Cup (PNC) has achieved an all-time new peak viewership record, becoming the most popular esports event in the game’s history.
According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the event saw a total of 815,631 peak concurrent viewers during the 18th and last round of the grand final, with Vietnam taking home the win over China and Thailand.
With yesterday’s match day, PUBG has broken its previous peak viewership record of 757,875, recorded during the PUBG Global Invitational 2018. Moreover, the competition smashed its previous record from last year’s PUBG Nations Cup, which stopped the count at 510,997.
Average viewership (272,681) has also gone up significantly, increasing by over 70,000 viewers compared to the previous edition (202,133), doubling the number of hours watched to a total of 6m. Viewership was steadily increasing after each round on the final day, with several rounds achieving over 600,000 people.
Taking place at the South Korean Olympic Handball Stadium, the competition saw 24 nations compete for the largest share of the $500,000 (~£369,674) prize pool for the first time ever. With the victory, Vietnam took home $150,000 (~£110,902).
PUBG Nations Cup’s Success
Team Vietnam’s win at the tournament was the major reason behind the new viewership record, with over 500,000 Vietnamese viewers tuning in. Korean-speaking fans accounted for 146,508, followed by Thai, English, and Russian.
Among the streaming platforms, YouTube was the preferred option, peaking at 444,836, followed by NimoTV (operated by Chinese company HuYa), Twitch and TikTok Live.
Due to the event being held in South Korea and considering the country had won the two previous editions, PUBG Esports collaborated with K-pop groups aespa and PLAVE to form a strong collaboration between music and gaming. Unfortunately, South Korea wasn’t able to repeat itself for a third time in front of the home crowd, only finishing in eighth place.
