The StarLadder Budapest Main 2025 has develop into the fifth most-watched Counter-Strike esports occasion of all time, with a peak of 1.5m viewers throughout its 137-hour airtime.
In keeping with esports knowledge platform Esports Charts, the Grand Closing between Crew Vitality and FaZe Clan reached a peak of 1,554,419.
The height viewing determine is an 8% lower in comparison with the BLAST.television Austin Main earlier this 12 months, which peaked at 1.7m viewers throughout the Grand Closing. Within the first Main of 2025, Crew Vitality overcame The MongolZ.
Regardless of the slight lower, the Budapest Main’s peak viewership remains to be greater than the Excellent World Shanghai Main 2024 and the BLAST.television Paris Main 2023.
Crew Vitality options in two of the 5 most-watched matches of the Budapest Main. All 5 matches recorded peaks of over 1.2m viewers.
Whereas the French organisation emerged victorious within the Grand Closing, it surprisingly wasn’t the most-watched group of the event. Runners-up FaZe Clan topped the charts, with over 19m hours recorded throughout its run from Stage 1 to the Grand Finals.
For StarLadder, the Main has develop into the event organiser’s most-watched occasion in its historical past and the primary to report a peak of over 1.5m. The Budapest Main surpassed StarLadder’s Berlin Main held in 2019, which recorded a peak of 836,306.
Essentially the most-watched Counter-Strike occasion in historical past stays 2021’s Stockholm Main. The occasion, operated by PGL, peaked at 2.7m viewers throughout the Grand Closing. Furthermore, the occasion turns into the thirteenth most-watched esports occasion of 2025.
What Subsequent For StarLadder?
Following the success of the Budapest Main, StarLadder has confirmed it can host one occasion in 2026. StarLadder StarSeries Season 20 will happen from September sixteenth to twentieth, with eight groups competing for a share of a $250,000 (~£186,728) prize pool.
The event organiser beforehand deliberate to host an occasion within the Spring, but it surely was cancelled as a result of a scheduling conflict with the IEM Cologne Main 2026.
