Major League Gaming owner Activision has announced in a press release today that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has broken the world records for eSports viewership with 45 million hours watched and record-breaking concurrent viewership of 1.6 million.
MLG offered 68 hours of premium content in 15 languages over the three days of the event.
The previous record was 34 million hours viewed and 1.3 million concurrent viewers during the CS: GO Major in Cologne, Germany last year.
“Last year, more than 225 million people watched competitive gaming, and the passion, engagement and size of this audience only continues to grow,” Mike Sepso, Senior Vice President of Activision Blizzard Media Networks and Major League Gaming (MLG) co-founder, commented in a press release. “As this year’s CS:GO Major numbers show, Activision Blizzard Media Networks’ commitment to broadcasting premium content and creating incredible events is resonating with players and fans around the world.”
Counter-Strike competitions have been held for 16 years now with developer Valve creating a CS: GO Major system two years ago. The Nationwide Arena Columbus championship, the eighth CS: Go Major event since 2013, is the first produced by MLG.
This was the first CS: GO Major held in North America and offered a $1 million prize pool. More than 10,000 fans attended over each of the three final days of the live competition. The Luminosity Gaming team won most of the honours and the prize pool.
The current eSports audience is estimated to stand at 225 million unique viewers and this is expected to grow to 300 million viewers in 2017.
Activision announced its entry into the eSports arena in October 2015 when it established its Media Networks Division, it acquired MLG in December 2015.
