Community streams accounted for nearly half of all CS2 tournament views in the first half of 2026.

Community streams accounted for nearly 50% of total viewing time for major esports disciplines in the first half of 2026.

According to Esports Charts, community streams accounted for 46.7% of the total viewing time for the largest esports disciplines. Among the most popular games, Counter-Strike 2 came closest to an equal split in audience between official broadcasts and content creators’ streams.

In Counter-Strike 2, the audience was split almost evenly between official broadcasts and independent community streams: 50.4% of viewing hours went to official broadcasts, while 49.6% went to content creators’ streams.

A similar situation was observed in Overwatch, where official broadcasts accounted for 53% of views, compared to 47% for community streams. In League of Legends, Dota 2, and Rocket League, independent streams already held a slight edge—accounting for 56.3%, 56.7%, and 56.5% of viewing time, respectively.

Earlier, it was announced which teams will face off against each other in the first round of BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 2 for Counter-Strike 2. The tournament will take place from July 21 to August 2, with the finals held in Malta.

Photo by Stephanie Lindgren, BLAST.