In 2023, Counter-Strike ranked third among the most popular esports disciplines in terms of viewing hours, accumulating 381.22 million hours. However, this figure indicates a significant drop in viewership compared to 2022, when the discipline earned 70 million more hours.
The release of the new game Counter-Strike 2 is considered a key moment in the franchise's history and could potentially revive interest in the game and esports in general. Experts believe that the game's update could rejuvenate the discipline and lead to an increase in viewership.
In 2023, only one major esports event took place for Counter-Strike, which is unusually low for this discipline. BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 garnered 58.89 million hours of viewing, which is lower than previous majors. The ESL Pro League events in 2023 also gathered fewer viewing hours than their counterparts in 2022.
These data suggest that although the Counter-Strike esports scene is not experiencing a crisis, it also did not show significant growth in 2023. There are hopes that Counter-Strike 2 can revive interest in the game and lead to an increase in viewership. Valve is already planning its first major event in China for 2024, which could be a significant step in the development of the Counter-Strike 2 esports scene.
The top 5 also included VALORANT, Dota 2, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and League of Legends. The latter took first place with 590.9 million hours of viewing. VALORANT, which was fifth, generated 326.7 million hours.
Source: Esports Charts
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