Another competitive gaming showcase brings in massive numbers of spectators.
The esports league managing company ESL announced that its ESL One New York event attracted 20 million unique online viewers across all streaming platforms. ESL One New York took place during October 1 and October 2 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. ESL is touting the event as the biggest ever for the East Coast. Along with the digital viewers, the arena had 8,500 fans watching on each day.
The event featured tournaments for the team-based shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the fighting game Street Fighter V. Those are two of the most popular competitive games in the esports industry, which intelligence firm Newzoo projects will earn $1.1 billion in revenues by 2019.
“ESL One New York saw record-breaking social media engagement, with more than 122 million impressions generated on ESL’s Twitter and Facebook channels, which included more than 7 million fan engagements,” ESL noted in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “ESL’s own content reached more than 21 million unique fans worldwide, 10.6 million of which were generated via highlights and backstage content. Nearly 80,000 Twitter accounts joined the conversation around the event with approximately 182,027 tweets. This makes ESL One New York one of the most talked about events in ESL history.”
The European team Natus Vincere won the Counter-Strike: GO tournament, earning $150,000. Chinese Street Fighter V player Zhuojun “Xiao Hai” Zeng won that game’s tournament and $30,000.