According to statistics collator, Esports Charts, MOUZ and Spirit’s BLAST.tv Austin Major quarter-final drew over 1.4m viewers at its peak, eclipsing the 1.32m viewers captured by FaZe and Spirit’s Grand Final contest at the Perfect World Shanghai Major.
The highly contested series saw MOUZ come back from losing their map pick in a quadruple overtime 25-21 defeat, before going on to take the series 2-1 in the electric atmosphere of Austin’s Moody Center.
The American crowd, deprived of a home major since the ELEAGUE Boston 2018, seem to be fully embracing the major both in the stadium and at home, as the match also set the major viewership record for an NA major, surpassing ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017’s 1.33m.
It should, however, be noted that Esports Charts‘ statistics do not include Chinese viewership as Chinese streaming platforms do not make that information public.
Could BLAST.tv Austin Major break viewership record?
The MOUZ and Spirit contest puts the BLAST.tv Austin Major roughly in line with the quarter-finals of PGL Stockholm 2021. The first major since the COVID pandemic, played inside European time zones, PGL Stockholm has long since held the viewership record in Counter-Strike.
PGL Stockholm’s final peaked at 2.75m viewers in the Grand Final between G2 and NaVi, which saw Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev and Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač fight for their first respective major trophies.
If the BLAST.tv Austin Major has hopes of breaking the viewership record, it would require similarly supported teams and individuals. For example, the potential Grand Final between FaZe vs Vitality and s1mple vs ZywOo…
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Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
