If you needed more evidence that eSports is a growing global phenomenon, the record-setting numbers from the Intel Extreme Masters event in Katowice, Poland last month are the proof. On the third event day, the Intel Extreme Masters and ESL One live streams reached a peak concurrent viewership of over 1,000,000 on Twitch, breaking the Twitch record for the highest concurrent viewership across a single event. The estimated global peak, across both Twitch and Asian streaming platforms, lies at approximately 1.6 million peak concurrent viewers.

Foot traffic was recorded at over 104,000 as fans from all around the world cheered teams and players to victory from within the Spodek Arena and adjoining International Congress Centre. More than 73 million stream sessions were recorded across all broadcasts, as five champions from four different games were crowned in Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One, ESL Legendary Series and Intel Challenge Katowice competitions. Each of the competitions at the IEM Expo 2015 broke ESL records to become the most watched streams in their respective games.

League of Legends, StarCraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft fans pushed not only stream numbers, but also YouTube numbers to record-breaking highs. The ESL YouTube channel celebrated a total of over one billion minutes watched, as content from Katowice brought in more than five million views in the ten days that followed.

Michal Blicharz, managing director of Pro Gaming at ESL, spoke with [a]listdaily about the event and its record-breaking engagement.

Congratulations on setting records for streaming and attendance! What factors led to this?

A major factor was also the track record we have had with Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice in 2013 and 2014. The expectation was set that the ESL would deliver a show that’s nothing short of spectacular and that has already built up a lot of hype for the event.  In Poland, the IEM already enjoys cult status and that helped. There were queues of thousands of people outside the arena at 9am in the morning for a show that started at 1pm.

All of the above adds up to the fundamentals that you have to deliver: an amazing experience for the fans and an improvement on what you did previously. Finally, you have to rely on the players to deliver captivating matches and take the audience’s excitement to the next level. We had all that in Katowice.

What does this event and its popularity say to you about the future of eSports?

We’re reaching audiences that are too large to ignore any more. TV stations are looking on with interest asking themselves how eSports grew so big right under their noses. Our mega events like IEM in Katowice, ESL One Frankfurt and others are definitely what the future of eSports will look like. You will see more and more events, not just tournaments, built around eSports and attracting tens of thousands of fans. The biggest competitions will end up on television and TV stations will no doubt try to either find or build regular content such as weekly leagues.

What’s the next big event for ESL, and do you expect to reach this same level of engagement with viewers?

The next mega event will be in ESL One Frankfurt for DotA 2 in June and then ESL One Cologne for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in August. Those events will punch on a heavyweight world championship level for their respective games. ESL One events operate on a different model as they feature a single game at a time. As such, they can’t be compared to IEM which groups several tournaments under one roof.

How do the sponsors of the event, particularly Intel, feel about the success of this tournament and of ESL?

The success of the IEM is not only a success for ESL but for Intel as well.  They’ve supported us since day one of IEM in 2006, back when professional gaming was a side show at a tech convention and we cheered when we had 20,000 people tuned in to a match.  They have the right to be as proud as we are right now.

Are there other games that you are looking at adding to ESL events, and if so, which ones?

We are looking at every game that is fun to watch and has a vibrant community. I can’t speak specifically about titles and genres as I would spoil what’s coming for the next Intel Extreme Masters season, but there are some new names on the white boards at the offices indeed.

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