The BLAST R6 Major Atlanta 2023 marked a significant moment in the history of Rainbow Six esports, but not for reasons many would expect. This event, held at the Gas South Arena in Atlanta, recorded a peak viewership of just under 80,000, making it the least popular offline Major for Rainbow Six to date. The tournament, which spanned 103 hours of air time, managed an average viewership of 44,539, as reported by Esports Charts.

Comparing Past and Present

The decline in viewership becomes more apparent when compared to previous events. The Six Major Raleigh 2019 still holds the record for peak viewership in Rainbow Six Siege Majors with 268,650 viewers. Even last year’s November Major saw a higher peak at 121,836, though it had a similar average viewership of 45,189. This drop in numbers is particularly notable as 2023 is the first full year BLAST has managed Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Siege esports scene, following a multi-year deal.

The Rainbow Six Siege esports environment saw significant changes once BLAST took control of it, most notably in the Majors format. The traditional Round Robin group stage was replaced by Swiss Format Playoffs and a Play-In stage. BLAST’s first effort at a Rainbow Six Siege Major, the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen 2023, had performed better, with a peak viewership of 118,877.

The BLAST R6 Major Atlanta 2023 was clinched by Brazilian organization W7M esports, who defeated LOS in the Grand Final. Despite not winning the title, LOS managed to attract more viewers, recording around 35,000 more hours watched than W7M. This made LOS the most popular team in terms of hours watched during the tournament.

The bulk of people who watched the event did it on Twitch, which had 66,271 viewers at its peak, while YouTube had 15,530 viewers at its peak. It’s noteworthy to notice that, despite the fact that the final teams were Brazilian, viewing figures for Portuguese-language sites were not the highest. The top audience on English-language platforms was higher, with 47,501.

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