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Fnatic not only enjoyed a memorable victory at this year’s ESL One Counter Strike finals in Katowice, but it did so in front of a record online audience.
The final of last year’s event was watched by 250k viewers. This year that number jumped to a massive 1m. Of that number, 700k watched through Twitch with the remainder watching through Counter Strike’s in-game client.
All of which meant that, for the weekend of the final at least, more people were watching CS than League of Legends. Still, context is required – for comparison last year’s League of Legends final attracted 11.2m viewers.
The final itself saw Swedish outfit Fnatic beat fellow countrymen Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The Daily Dot adds that the success of the tournament helped boost the game’s numbers, too. During last year’s finals Valve’s shooter hit a peak of 160k concurrent players. This year that number reached 595k, helped in no small part by a Steam price discount.
Again, for comparison, League of Legends attracts in the region of 27m players every day.
