The viewing numbers are in for the Fortnite‘s popularity has been the focus of debate in 2019, as some see it slipping off the very high peak it set for itself throughout 2018, but the World Cup has proven there is still plenty of interest.
Much of that will be thanks to the ridiculous prize pool, which currently holds the record for all esports events at $30 million, although DotA 2 will reclaim that crown at The International 2019 in August.
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Still, with first place in the solos event, Bugha, walking away with $3 million, Fortnite fans, and many casual viewers too, had to tune in to see it go down.
Fortnite already held the overall Twitch viewership record from its Celebrity Pro-Am event at E3 2018, which attracted 1.5 million total, and although the World Cup didn’t quite surpass that, it sets a new record for esports specifically.
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A whopping 1.3 million concurrent viewers watched the solos, which featured stars like Bizzle and Tfue, but many of the competitors were lesser-known, proving it wasn’t all just about big names.
The duos event peaked at 1 million concurrent viewers on Twitch, still an incredibly impressive figure, considering the likes of Bizzle and Tfue weren’t even competing in that event.
- Read More: CS:GO‘s ELEAGUE Boston Major (1.15 million) and League of Legends peak of 1.14 million.
ELEAGUE still holds the record for an event broadcast on a single channel, while the Fortnite World Cup number accounts for all channels streaming the broadcast.
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Of course, Twitch was not the only platform for fans to watch the world cup, and many more watched on YouTube, Mixer, Twitter, and in-game on Fortnite too.
Combining all platforms, the viewership hit over 2 million on both days, for the solos and duos events.
Fortnite esports has now reached 2 million concurrent viewers and climbing for the World Cup solos finals across Twitch and YouTube alone, along with Facebook, Mixer, and Twitter#FortniteWorldCup pic.twitter.com/wCHdVjY0xZ
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 28, 2019
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The numbers were no doubt helped thanks to many streamers ‘co-streaming’ the broadcast, meaning there were numerous channels broadcasting the action, not just the official Fortnite stream by Epic Games.
Nonetheless, the impressive bodes well for Fortnite generally, and specifically its growing competitive community, who will now be hoping Epic can put more time, resources and care into promoting the esports side of their game.
