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FACEIT’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament brand Esports Championship Series (ECS) concluded its Season 8 Finals last weekend with Astralis returning to the top of the scene over Team Liquid.
Edwin “Castro_1021” Castro once again returned to the top 10 following his consistent cycle of peaking during new FIFA 20 content releases.
Several new names entered the top 10 this week including Cloud9 League of Legends pro Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi.
The following content is ranked according to the total number of hours watched on Twitch from Monday to the following Sunday, with data compiled using TEO Access.
CS:GO Never Stops
While most major esports have wrapped up their competitive season for the year, the open nature of the Counter-Strike ecosystem allows the game to effectively generate viewership all year long. The game’s most recent chart-topping tournament came via FACEIT and the ECS Season 8 Finals. The tournament organizer’s main channel generated 2.24M hours watched over just four days of competition.
Viewership peaked on championship Sunday during a hard-fought final series between two of the game’s most prominent organizations – Astralis and Team Liquid. The broadcast reached 146.67K max concurrent viewers (CCV) as Astralis took home the victory.
FIFA’s Still Kicking
Sports simulation games generally underperform on Twitch outside of their initial release. The FIFA series, however, is able to buck that trend due a combination of its greater global popularity, larger esports investment, and the viewership generated by Castro during new content releases. The streamer has a predictable ebb and flow to his viewership tied directly to new game and content releases. When a major update or new title drops for FIFA, Castro can reliably be seen popping his head into the Top 10, and then usually falling out again the following week.
This was evidenced by a large spike in his viewership on Black Friday, Nov. 29, when EA Sports launched a special promotion. Out of the streamer’s 862.85K hours watched during the week, 292.55K was generated on that single day, with the majority of the week’s total coming over the course of the weekend promotion.
What Happened to Sneaky
The offseason provides more time for League of Legends pros to stream, leading to longer, more frequent broadcasts and therefore greater viewership numbers. Indeed, Scuderi’s airtime has gone up dramatically since his return from the World Championship. However, it is extremely rare for a professional player to generate enough viewership to contend with the influencers that regularly appear in the Top 10.
Likely, Scuderi has received a boost from the controversy surrounding him since the start of the offseason. The name “Sneaky” has appeared in the starting roster for Cloud9 every year since the organization’s inception, but recently it was announced that he will not be guaranteed that starting spot in 2020. Scuderi has spoken openly about the state of his career on stream, making it a must-watch part of the developing drama. The added buzz surrounding his stream helped Scuderi generate 697.62K hours watched.
