Astana Tournament Becomes Most Popular Non-Major CS Event by PGL

The penultimate day of the PGL Astana 2025 tournament became historic for the Counter-Strike world: broadcasts peaked at 715,091 viewers.

This is the most popular PGL tournament that is not a major, and simultaneously a record-breaking esports event in Kazakhstan 's history. Moreover, the tournament even surpassed the FIDE 2023 World Chess Championship, which peaked at 572,000 viewers.

Numbers from Esports Charts and the Most Popular Matches
According to the analytics portal Esports Charts, the tournament reached its peak of 715,091 viewers on the second day of the playoffs — during the semifinal matches. This marked the highest viewership in PGL's history outside of majors and an absolute record among all broadcasts held in Kazakhstan .

Esports Charts also provides information on the top 5 most popular matches of the tournament by peak viewership:

Spirit vs FURIA Esports — 715,091 viewers
Astralis vs NAVI — 485,508
Astralis vs aurora — 467,185
NIP vs Spirit — 458,691
MIBR vs FURIA Esports — 420,830

The record-breaking numbers of PGL Astana 2025 are important not only as a momentary victory but also as a benchmark for the future. If such events continue to happen, Kazakhstan and neighboring countries could become key regions for hosting major CS2 tournaments, up to majors. This opens new horizons for both organizers and fans, who can now look forward to even more top-tier events in their part of the world.