IEM Katowice 2024: CS2, surprises, viewership surge

IEM Katowice 2024 Day One: Viewership stats and Unexpected Outcomes

With a million dollar prize pool, IEM Katowice 2024 featured top-tier international Counter-Strike 2 tournament that got underway in Poland on January 31st. Counter Strike esports continues to showcase the best of competitive gaming. 

On the first day of the Play-In stage, 320K Peak Viewers attended, with The MongolZ vs FURIA Esports receiving special attention thanks to Gaules' lively Brazilian viewership. The Play-In stage was characterized by unexpected outcomes, like as Heroic's triumph against Astralis and Cloud9's loss to Rebels Gaming.  

Only eight teams will move on, with GamerLegion, Heroic, Eternal Fire, and Team Spirit having already secured berths. The remaining qualifiers were revealed before the end of February 2nd. Due to a changed schedule, the number of hours seen for the first day of Play-In matches was 1.7 million, a 24% drop from the previous year. In spite of this, compared to the previous year, average and peak online viewing increased by 30% and 34%, respectively.