ESL Gaming and FACEIT, two of esports biggest event organizers, were recently purchased in a $1.5 billion deal by Savvy Gaming Group. The merger is set to be completed next quarter, and the two companies report they will co-exist in the esports space. Stream Hatchet has analyzed the data and here are some insights on what this merger means for the esports space:
- In 2021, ESL Gaming, Dreamhack, and FACEIT Gaming events garnered about 10.8% of the total hours watched of esports events. This makes the newly merged ESL FACEIT Group definitively the second largest tournament organizer after Riot Games, who garnered about 34% of the total hours watched last year. MSL and Tencent Games follow ESL FACEIT with 7.8% and 7.5% of the total watchtime, respectively.
- The top events for each of the organizers were Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, one of the top games in the esports space and one that the new ESL FACEIT Group announced it will focus on in the future. After the merger, The ESL FACEIT Group will be the definitive tournament organizer for CS:GO events; in 2021, their events accounted for over 38% of the total CS:GO event watchtime.
- BLAST, the second largest CS:GO tournament organizer, garnered 23.8% of the total hours watched. Valve, CS:GO’s publisher, only hosted two events in 2021, both Dota 2 tournaments which garnered 4.4% of the total esports events watchtime.
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