A raucous day one at the IEM Rio CS:GO Major isn’t over yet and already the event is breaking records, with even loftier goals now realistically in sight.
During day one of the Challengers Stage of IEM Rio, the number of peak viewers reached just over 745,000, setting a new record for peak viewership during a Challengers Stage, according to the data gathered at Esports Charts. Both the primary English stream from ESL and the Portuguese/Brazilian stream from Gaules peaked at 308,000 viewers each.
The peak appears to have occurred during the high-profile matchup of round one of the Challengers Stage when the French-Danish superteam of Vitality took on the Brazilian fan-favorite squad of legends on Imperial. Vitality looked poised to absolutely decimate Imperial, at one point turning the unfathomably loud venue into a library. And while Imperial teased a potential comeback, they ended up falling short.
Prior to the start of round two in the Challengers Stage, the Rio Major has averaged over 519,000 viewers over its first eight hours of runtime. For context, both the PGL Stockholm and PGL Antwerp Majors each averaged less than 600,000 viewers during their entire run, but both also broke the 2 million peak viewer mark during the grand finals.
The first round of the Challengers Stage at IEM Rio has been a rough one for Brazil and South America, with all four SA teams losing their opening best-of-one. But that hasn’t deterred the Rio crowd from making noise.
Even with the slow start out of Brazil, IEM Rio has a chance to easily live up to the expectations that have been set for it, with (including ESL) deeming it the biggest or greatest Major of all time.
