In case anybody ever thinks that Counter-Strike isn’t big business, the latest viewership figures from Intel Extreme Masters tournament are here to prove them wrong.
Over 1 million concurrent viewers stood witness to professional Counter-Strike team Fnatic take the IEM Katowice title from their rivals, the brilliantly named Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The figures were revealed by ESL representative Michal Blicharz last night.
That figure is comprised of 700,000 people who watched the match via Twitch with the remainder being accounted for by folks who spectated in via the in-game client.
As well as setting a record for concurrent viewership, this year’s IEM Katowice event also shattered records for the total number of concurrent players too, with a staggering 595,439 players competing at the same time versus a peak of 160,000 concurrent players from the previous year.
As a point of comparison though, League of Legends still remains untouchable when it comes to figures.
With some 27 million concurrent players every day and the 11.2 million concurrent players viewers that tuned in to watch last year’s League of Legends finale at the Riot World Championships, it’s clear that Counter-Strike has more than a little catching up to do.
Regardless though, let’s just kick back and raise a glass to the resurgent success of Counter-Strike eh?
The boy’s done good.
