IEM Katowice 2024 Breaks Records: Massive Viewership Surge in Counter-Strike Esports!

Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice, a prominent event in the world of Counter-Strike esports, has witnessed a remarkable surge in viewership compared to its 2023 edition.

IEM Katowice reached a peak viewership of approximately 972,000, marking a substantial increase of over 200,000 from the previous year's figure of 726,000. This positions it as the fourth most-watched Katowice event, as reported by the esports data platform Esports Charts.

The event's peak viewership demonstrated a notable growth of about 25% compared to the previous year. Additionally, IEM Katowice displayed improvements in various viewership metrics. Average viewership rose from approximately 235,000 in 2023 to 287,000, despite having around 15 hours less airtime. Overall, the 2024 event accumulated over 1 million more hours of programming watched.

The tournament concluded with Team Spirit, a well-known russian esports organization currently based in Serbia, emerging victorious by defeating FaZe Clan in the grand final. The top four also featured Team Falcons and MOUZ, with esteemed organizations like G2 Esports, Natus Vincere, Heroic, and Team Vitality placing below sixth.

The grand final clash between FaZe and Team Spirit became the most-watched match of the entire tournament. Interestingly, the playoffs witnessed only one match requiring a tiebreaker, with four matches concluding with either 2:0 or 3:0 scores. Despite the dominance displayed in the playoffs, it is noteworthy that ENCE, a team eliminated in the quarter-finals, accrued more total hours watched than both MOUZ and Falcons, both of which advanced to the semifinals.

The victor of IEM Katowice, Team Spirit, is notably not part of the ESL partner program. The organization shifted its operations to Belgrade, Serbia, following the onset of the russian invasion of Ukraine, and has been competing from this European country since then.