FaceIt Minor sets new viewership record for the Major’s early stages

The final qualifier for the FACEIT Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Valve Major set new viewership records.

Viewers consumed roughly 6.4 million hours of content across the three-week-long FACEIT Minor, almost three times that of the previous Valve Minor. The most viewed tournament was the European Minor, with a peak viewer number of 142,000 and an average viewership of 82,000. All-in-all, this led to 4.3 million hours of CS:GO being consumed throughout the European Minor.

“We wanted to give the FACEIT Minors a big tournament feel and the teams really responded and raised their game,” said FACEIT co-founder and chief business officer Michele Attisani in a press release.

Related: NiP qualify for FACEIT London Major—their first Major since 2016

A total of 32 teams competed for a spot at the FACEIT London Major, but ultimately only eight teams ended up making the cut. Each Minor was also played at the legendary rugby venue Twickenham Stadium, which will play host to the first two stages of the FACEIT London Major between Sept. 5 to 16.

The figures presented by FACEIT exclude Chinese viewer numbers, meaning the viewership for the FACEIT Minor was the largest viewership for any Valve Minor by a wide margin.

“The viewership for the entire circuit has completely exceeded our expectations which is a testament to the level of CS:GO we’ve seen throughout,” Attisani said.

The FACEIT London Major will be the final Valve Major of 2018, taking place between Sept. 5 to 23. The Valve Majors will return in 2019, with ESL hosting the first Major of the year at its IEM Katowice World Championship.