CS2 Tops Most Watched Esports Rankings in Q2 2026
According to Stream Hatchet, Counter-Strike 2 surpassed League of Legends in total watch time for the second quarter of 2026. IEM Cologne drove the lead.
The second quarter of 2026 concluded with a new milestone for Counter-Strike 2. Based on data from analytics firm Stream Hatchet, Valve's shooter claimed the top spot in the ranking of most-watched esports disciplines. Official CS2 tournaments accumulated a total of 209 million hours watched, allowing it to overtake League of Legends, which previously held the number one position.
The primary driver behind this surge was the performance at IEM Cologne. At its peak, the competition attracted 2.7 million simultaneous viewers. These significant tournament metrics enabled Counter-Strike to surpass League of Legends in the overall standings.
League of Legends secured second place with 166 million hours watched. Among titles in this genre, the first two rounds of the LCK stood out, reaching a peak audience of 2.2 million viewers.
Rounding out the top three was the mobile MOBA Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Tournaments for the game accumulated 119 million hours watched. Notably, MPL Indonesia Season 17 set the highest peak online viewership among the top three disciplines, with 2.9 million viewers watching simultaneously.
In the upper tier of Stream Hatchet's rankings, MOBA and competitive shooters dominated. The only discipline from a different genre among the leaders was Rocket League. It is worth noting that the list was compiled based on metrics of official esports tournaments, not all broadcasts of the respective games.
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