IEM Cologne grand-final records over a million peak concurrent viewers

Coming in as the first S-tier event after the BLAST.tv Austin 2025 Major, IEM Cologne 2025 was a closely followed event by many. Some wanted to see how The MongolZ would fare after a grand-final appearance at the Austin Major, some wanted to witness the new-look Falcons with Kyousuke in the mix, some wanted to see if Vitality had what it took to continue their streak and some wanted to see if donk would bounce back.

IEM Cologne 2025 delivered on all fronts from The MongolZ making history, becoming the first Asian team to step into the LANXESS Arena to MOUZ ending Vitality's streak to challenge Spirit in the grand-final. The grand-final, recorded a peak concurrent viewership of 1,098,730 as per esports charts statistics. MOUZ were one of the most followed teams, making three entries in the top five most popular games at IEM Cologne 2025.

The SVP of game ecosystems at the ESL-FACEIT Group, Ulrich Schulze has pointed out that IEM Cologne 2025 became the second most watched Counter-Strike 2 event in the past twelve months, only behind the BLAST.tv Austin 2025 Major.