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Although it's only April, esports fever has already swept across Australia!IEM Melbourne 2025has just wrapped up, becoming one of the most popularCounter-Striketournaments of the year. The event set several new records, drew over a million concurrent viewers, and featured one of the most thrilling finals in the game's history. Esports Charts has compiled the full viewership statistics for IEM Melbourne 2025 and highlighted some key moments you might have missed.
IEM Melbourne 2025 saw 16 teams competing, but all eyes were on Team Falcons. Just before the tournament, Ilya ‘’m0NESY’’ Osipov, the former G2 Esports player and one of the world’s top snipers, joined the squad. The Russian player reunited with Nikola ‘’NiKo’’ Kovač, and it seemed that this move would bring much-needed stability to Team Falcons. To the delight of Falcons fans, m0NESY’s transition to the team went smoothly.
The group stage of IEM Melbourne 2025 delivered only a few surprises. First up,FaZe Clancontinues to falter in crucial matches where they're expected to win, this time losing toGamerLegionin a game that would have secured their spot in the playoffs.Natus Vincerealso underperformed, falling toTeam Liquidin a similar must-win match and missing out on the tournament’s final stage. Meanwhile,Team VitalityandMOUZdelighted their fans by once again sweeping through the group stage undefeated.
In the semifinals, Team Falcons defeated MOUZ, while Team Vitality triumphed over The MongolZ — both matches ended with a 2:0 scoreline. What’s more, Team Vitality went all the way to the grand final without losing a single map. It wasn’t until the decisive match that the French team faced a real challenge. The final between Team Vitality and Team Falcons provided IEM Melbourne 2025’s audience with an unforgettable rollercoaster of emotions — the intense battle stretched across all five maps, with multiple overtime rounds on the final map before a winner was finally crowned.
Team Vitality / Photo: HLTV
By winning IEM Melbourne 2025, Team Vitality secured not only their fourth championship title of 2025 but also claimed the Grand Slam and a $1,000,000 prize.
The Grand Slam is an additional $1,000,000 prize awarded to a team that wins 4 out of 10 consecutive S-Tier events organized by ESL. Team Vitality secured this prize after victories at IEM Cologne 2024, IEM Katowice 2025, ESL Pro League Season 21, and IEM Melbourne 2025. Interestingly, Team Vitality’s Robin ‘’ropz’’ Kool had already won the Grand Slam with FaZe Clan in 2023; he became just the second player, after Twistzz, to achieve this feat twice — and with two different teams.
Team Vitality’s victory at IEM Melbourne 2025 and their Grand Slam win sparked such excitement that even the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, congratulated the team on their achievement.
Avec son Grand Slam, Vitality hisse la France au sommet de l’esport et fait briller nos couleurs. Bravo à toute l’équipe !https://t.co/JAOcQCKbun
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 27, 2025
Team Vitality currently sits at the top of the HLTV.org team rankings. They’ve won 21 consecutive official matches, marking the longest winning streak in the team’s history. You can find more details about Team Vitality’s win streak on their Esports Charts profile.
IEM Melbourne 2025 Viewership Statistics
IEM Melbourne 2025 attracted 1,253,999 concurrent viewers, setting a new record for the largest peak online viewership for any esports tournament ever held in Australia. The previous record was held by IEM Sydney 2023, with 463,081 Peak Viewers. This marks an incredible 170% growth.
Team Vitality and Team Falcons emerged as the top leaders of IEM Melbourne 2025, in total watch hours and average viewership per match. Interestingly, the grand final's peak viewership was three times higher than any other match in the tournament. At first, this difference might seem unusual, but entirely natural factors explain the large gap.
The grand final generated a lot of buzz in the community: it marked m0NESY’s first final with Team Falcons, just after joining the team. At the same time, Team Vitality was on the verge of clinching the Grand Slam. The entire tournament in Melbourne was packed with compelling storylines, giving viewers even more reasons to tune in for the grand final.
Want to see all the stats for IEM Melbourne 2025, including detailed insights on languages, the most popular teams, and broadcast channels? You can find everything in our event dashboard by Esports Charts.
Additionally, on the final day, the number of unique broadcast channels increased by 29.5% compared to other days of the playoffs. Even some popular streamers, who don’t usually cover Counter-Strike and hadn’t streamed the tournament before, joined in to watch the decisive match. Notable names like Marc ‘’Caedrel’’ Lamont and Roman ‘’Ramzes’’ Kushnarev were among them, with peak viewership on their channels hitting 60,000 concurrent viewers.
Let's also note the surge in viewership across official channels. For instance, peak viewership on the ESL CS YouTube channel grew by 220% from the first day of the playoffs to the grand final. A similar spike was recorded on the official ESLCS Twitch channel. Community casters experienced comparable growth as well, with popular German streamer Mark ‘’ohnePixel’’ Zimmermann seeing a 174% increase in peak viewership during the same period.
IEM Melbourne 2025 finished as the second most popular tournament of the year, trailing onlyIEM Katowice 2025. It also became the second most-watched non-Major event in Counter-Strike history, falling just short of setting a new record.
The next big Counter-Strike tournament is BLAST Rivals Spring 2025, set to take place from April 30 to May 4 in Copenhagen. The event will feature a prize pool of $350,000, with the world’s top teams, including Team Vitality and Team Falcons, battling for the win.
