ESL, the world's largest esports company, today announced a significant growth of different audience data from its main tournaments. During the first seven months of 2019, the average audience per minute (+ 90%), viewing hours (+ 190%) and video views (+ 55%) have increased considerably as a result of the tuning of fans to ESL One, Intel® Extreme Masters and ESL Pro League tournaments, which shattered the figures registered in 2018 *.

The first four months of this period of time recorded great peaks in major ESL competitions, such as Intel® Extreme Masters Katowice in March, which set the record as the most viewed series of ESL tournaments of all time, with more than 174,000 attendees over the course of two weekends. In May, both ESL One Birmingham and Intel® Extreme Masters Sydney exceeded audience figures from previous editions. ESL Pro League Occitanie also broke its all-time audience record in June , making this season the most watched in the history of the league. ESL One Cologne in July recorded the most hours seen for a CS: GO tournament (no major), and tickets sold out for the fourth consecutive year. After the visual renewal of the brand in January, the viewer's experience in all major tournaments has improved significantly, which has resulted in significant growth in almost all metrics.

"It is a pride to see this growth in audience and public interest ," says Ralf Reichert, ESL CEO. " ESL's open ecosystem allows us to work with a variety of games that offers us the opportunity to create outstanding and innovative competitions such as IEM Katowice, ESL One Cologne and Birmingham and see them thrive and grow over the years. We will continue to make an extra effort for a world in which 'everybody can be somebody', building a path for everyone to participate in these tournaments in order to create memorable moments for players, fans and partners, "concludes Reichert .

ESL milestones in 2019
Achievement of Intel Grand Slam in ESL One Cologne in record time
ESL One Cologne, widely known as "The Counter-Strike Cathedral", sold out all tickets for four consecutive years and recorded 12.3 million hours of viewing , making the CS competition record: GO no major with major number of hours of viewing. The winners, Team Liquid, took home a total of $ 1,115,000 for winning the tournament in the first place and for completing the second Intel® Grand Slam in history, which is awarded to teams that win four out of ten tournaments. ESL and DreamHack Masters, in a record time of 63 days.

ESL Pro League Renewal
Season 9 of ESL Pro League and its Occitanie finals in the South of France Arena broke its own audience records of all time. This has been the most watched season of ESL Pro League in its history , doubling the number of video viewing reaching 66.6 million and reaching more than 16.1 million hours of viewing.

ESL One Birmingham sets a Dota 2 audience record
ESL One Birmingham, the largest esports tournament in the United Kingdom, is proclaimed as the most watched ESL One Dota 2 event to date . The tournament reached a new record of 306,070 simultaneous spectators who tuned the broadcast, which represents an increase of 12.4% since the last record set during the Hamburg major in 2017. The number of hours of content seen also experienced a very high increase. significant, with more than 7.6 million hours consumed over the course of the weekend full of Dota 2 content.

IEM Sydney sets a new esports audience record in Australia
This year's event surpassed all audience records for an esports tournament held in Australia, with more than 20 million viewers tuned throughout the event . Counter-Strike fans around the world saw almost 10 million hours of content during the course of the event, 16% more than in 2018. It was the third stop of the tournament in Sydney, and the 75th worldwide since its inception. in 2006.

ESL and Intel welcomed 174,000 fans at the esports event with greater assistance in Katowice
In addition to the 174,000 fans who attended the tournaments and the exhibition that took place over the course of two weekends, 20 million people tuned in every day, which resulted in significant growth of the main audience data, and converted the competition in the most watched series of ESL tournaments of all time. The event was broadcast by both linear and digital partners from around the world, who produced and distributed content in 21 languages.

ESL develops its main brand
ESL has had a significant role in the formation of the industry in terms of broadcasting, production and experience in events through the most prestigious sports brands and products in the world, being pioneers in stadium tournaments and systematically breaking industry records. Brand renewal has been a cornerstone of ESL's growth acceleration strategy and has improved the integration of its associated brands by clarifying the 'from zero to hero' path through the multiple ESL leagues and tournaments, growing Your huge fan base.