IEM Cologne 2026 Stage 1 Day 1 Hit 450k Peak Viewers
IEM Cologne 2026 is the first CS2 major of the year, and the biggest event of the first six months. 32 teams are competing in the Valve major, playing for a share of the $1.25m prize pool.
The list of rosters includes 9 of the top 10 VRS-ranked teams, as well as a smattering of underdogs and outsiders.
A Ton Of Matches
The tournament includes 3 early stages, each played in a Swiss-style format, followed by the play-offs. There will be more than 100 matches, in total, which means a lot of content for viewers.
And according to Esports Charts, the German tournament has started well in terms of viewership. On day 1, Cologne achieved 450,000 peak viewers.
The most popular match was between BIG and Liquid, which drew a peak of 370,000 viewers, closely followed by Tyloo vs MIBR with 350,000. B8 vs THUNDER dOWNDUNDER and Liquid vs BetBoom reached 346,000 and 345,000 viewers, respectively.
Stages 2 and 3 see the arguably more popular teams thrown into the fray, so viewer numbers will only increase from here, before presumably hitting a summit during the playoffs. PGL Astana recently broke the record for the highest peak viewers for a non-major, with 1.2m watchers.
Trading Action
The tournament has also attracted a lot of attention from punters. So far, Polymarket has seen more than $10m traded on the tournament winner market alone.
M80 vs B8 and TYLOO vs Sinners both saw $2m traded, with several other matches topping the $1m mark.
One market that hasn’t seen as much action yet is whether any player will smash a device during Stage 1. 15% of traders believe somebody will rage-smash a mouse, keyboard, chair, or other item.
