A bit of esports good news to follow up from the sad story of Gfinity Esports Australia ceasing operations, with ESL reporting record growth across its major 2019 tournaments. As the largest esports organisation in the world covering ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters and ESL Pro League tournaments viewership numbers over 2018 show sizable jumps.

By the numbers the report indicated the following: average minute audience (+90%), hours watched (+190%) and video views (+55%), showcasing the key interest across its suite of titles. Including Counter-Strike, DOTA 2 and more.

“This growth in viewership and interest is humbling to see,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO at ESL. “ESL’s open ecosystem enables us to work with a variety of games that allows ESL to build standout, innovative properties such as IEM Katowice, ESL One Cologne and Birmingham and see them thrive and grow over the years. We will continue to go that extra mile for a world where everybody can be somebody, creating a path for everybody to participate in these tournaments to build memorable moments for players, fans, partners."

Locally this extends to IEM Sydney which this year set viewership records for an Australian esports tournament with a global audience.