ESL Break Records in Katowice
Last month ESL invaded Katowice with a bunch of eSports events across a single weekend. The Intel Extreme Masters World Championships and the ESL One Katowice CS:GO tournament were the main draws and were responsible for multiple records being broken.
On day three of the event the IEM and ESL One live streams broke 1,000,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch, breaking the record for concurrent viewers across a single event. When other platforms are taken into consideration the peak total concurrent viewers is believed to be in the 1.6m region.
Over 104,000 people attended the event in person while over 73m stream sessions took place over the weekend. Even those who couldn’t tune in live managed to break records as the ESL YouTube channel saw more than five million views in the 10 days after the event. The infographic at the bottom of the page shows off even more stats.
Michal Blicharz, Managing Director of Pro Gaming at ESL had this to say about the event.
“It is amazing to see how in five years Intel Extreme Masters went from being a side show at a tech or comic expo somewhere to being its own exhibition with a truly mainstream level appeal,”
“It is a massive turnaround that represents incredible cultural growth for eSports as a whole, with steady viewership that regularly rivals that of other major sports productions.”
Then Ralf Reichert, Managing Director of ESL added his two cents.
“I remember what people were saying when we decided to take Intel Extreme Masters to the Spodek Arena in Katowice, the first stadium event for esports in the western world twenty-six months ago. People said that the community wasn’t ready for a pioneer event like that,”
Three seasons of competition later, I think we can safely say that esports can create unparalleled memorable experiences. The community was ready then, and they’re more than ready now. A very big thank you to everyone who made this event possible. We all share in its success.”
If the Katowice festivities has made you want to attend a major eSports event you are in luck as there is still some tickets left for the ESL One Frankfurt Dota 2 event and the ESL One Cologne CS:GO event, both of which take place this summer. You can grab tickets and find out more info about both events right here.
