2022 World Finals set new viewership record for Brawl Stars

29 November 2022

Often, when we speak about international esports, we speak about titles for consoles and desktops, from classic first-person shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to hugely popular sports games like FIFA. The world of international esports is more than consoles and computers though, as mobile gaming has proven to be one of the fastest growing parts of the sector. This was underlined once again during the 2022 Brawl Stars World Finals that were held from November 25th to November 27th at Disneyland Paris. With almost 400.000 peak viewers, the event became the mobile game’s most-viewed esports event in history.

Hunting records

While the new Brawl Stars peak viewership record was recorded during the Round of 16 encounter between Spain-based but Latin-American team ZEST LATAM and former 2017 Vainglory World Championship winners Tribe Gaming EU, that wasn’t the only record that was broken during the 2022 Brawl Stars World Finals. The former peak viewership record, set at just over 250.000 unique viewers back in 2020, was shattered with conviction, but the 2022 edition of the event also ended up recording the most hours watched and the highest average number of viewers overall. In total, an average of 200.000 viewers per event consumed about 2,9 million hours of Brawl Stars content during the 2022 World Finals.

What’s also interesting is to look at which participating teams actually garnered the most views in terms of average viewers and hours watched. In terms of average viewers per clash, Brazilian side Chasmac Gaming BR took the crown with just under 336.000 viewers per match despite not making it past the Round of 16. Japanese esports organization ZETA DIVISION ONE generated the most hours watched during the event with a total of 913.800 hours. That’s quite impressive, because that represents about 31% of the total hours watched during the 2022 Brawl Stars World Finals.

$1 million prize pool

As is standard for Brawl Stars World Finals, the organizers made a total prize pool worth one million USD available for the best performing teams. The Japanese dominated the event with ZETA DIVISION ZERO winning the 2022 World Finals and ZETA DIVISION ONE ending as runners-up, taking home $400.000 and $200.000 respectively. Mexican organization STMN Esports finished in third place with previously mentioned Tribe Gaming right behind them, both teams getting $80.000 for their efforts. Places five to eight were all awarded $30.000 and places nine to sixteen won $15.000.

As could be expected, the 2022 Brawl Stars World Finals MVP award went to a member of the winning team, ZETA DIVISION ZERO. Japanese player Tensai was chosen as the best Brawler in the final game against ZETA DIVISION ONE, which resulted in his first MVP title. Like that, Tensai is working towards a fitting end of his 2022 in which, besides the World Finals, he also won the Brawl Stars Championship 2022: East Asia Finals in May, July and September, amongst other titles.