In comparison to previous years, IEM Katowice 2023 viewership decreased dramatically, leaving fans debating what were the causes.
According to Esports Charts, the most-watched game of the CS:GO tournament was naturally the final between G2 Esports and Heroic, which attracted 726,717 peak viewers. However, it's a significant decrease compared to the previous year, when the grand final series between FaZe Clan and G2 attracted 1,122,015 viewers, meaning that this year's edition saw a 36 percent decrease.
G2's CS:GO star explains the team's journey to the IEM Katowice championship.
When it comes to average viewers and hours watched, IEM Katowice 2023 appears to be bleak. Despite the same format, this year's event had 235,623 average viewers, who produced 23,503,319 hours watched. In comparison, IEM Katowice 2022 had 328,068 average viewers and hours watched.
The sudden drop in viewership might be attributed to a few things. One of these might be the fact that last year's champions, FaZe, who are well-known in the CS:GO community, didn't qualify for the playoffs. Similarly, no Brazilian team made it to the group stage, most likely reducing the viewership of that stage.
G2, the most popular team, won the entire tournament and three of their series were among the top five most-watched ones in both 2022 and 2023, according to Esports Charts. Their grand final competitor this year, Heroic, doesn't appear to have that huge fanbase as well, at least compared to FaZe.
Aside from the football game, the final occurred on Super Bowl Sunday, which might have tempted some North American fans to withdraw from the competition.
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G2 Esports won the grand final of IEM Katowice 2023 on the back of an incredible 21 map-win streak, the second largest in CS:GO's history.