One-day gaming tournament achieves total watch time of more than 1m hours.
Electronic Arts
- FIFA 21 Challenge drew an average minute audience of over 254k
- Figures smash record for EA-operated FIFA event; previous AMA high was 92k
The EA Sports FIFA 21 Challenge drew an average minute audience (AMA) of 254,057 and a total watch time of 1.024 million hours, making the event the most-watched esports broadcast in history operated by games publisher Electronic Arts (EA).
The broadcast metrics for the FIFA 21 Challenge, a one-day tournament held on 29th October that paired top soccer stars with the world’s best FIFA players, are more than double the viewership set by the next most-watched EA-operated FIFA event.
The previous record was set back in January 2018 with the multi-day FIFA Global Series FUT Champions Cup: Barcelona, which achieved an AMA of 92,678.
The FIFA 21 Challenge was won by Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold and Fnatic’s Tekkz. The event also utilised the new FIFA Global Series Viewership Rewards, creating an interactive broadcast for viewers with in-game benefits for watching to further drive engagement and subsequent play time.
“EA Sports FIFA is woven into the fabric of football culture. Bringing professional footballers and our esports pros together creates entertainment that sets our tournaments apart,” said EA Sports FIFA commissioner Brent Koning.
“The success of the FIFA 21 Challenge reinforces our strategy and vision for broadening the esports audience, creating content for our fans, and underscores the value of entertainment-driven events that branch outside of traditional esports.”
FIFA is one of the most popular sport simulation titles both in esports and for casual gamers in a sector dominated by ‘fictional’ games. While the viewing figures represent a considerable boost for EA, they are still way behind competitive gaming’s biggest draws.
The final of the 2020 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship had an average viewership of more than 1.1 million, with over 139 million hours watched, according to Esports Charts.
Meanwhile, English top-flight soccer club Wolverhampton Wanderers will compete in the Rocket League Champions Series Season X, starting on 12th November with the Winter Split.
The moves makes Wolves the first Premier League team to enter the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), having already competed in the likes of PUBG, Identity V, FIFA 21 and FIFA Online 4.
