The 45th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE, wrapped up in Budapest. The event was streamed on Twitch and YouTube, attracting over 136,000 concurrent viewers at peak and making it the third most-watched tournament of the year in terms of total HW.
A total of 197 teams participated, including 15 of the top 20 players in the world, such as Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Ding Liren. In the open tournament, India took home the championship, with the USA and Uzbekistan finishing in the top three. In the women’s tournament, India also emerged victorious, while Kazakhstan and the USA secured silver and bronze, respectively. With this achievement, India became the third country, after the Soviet Union and China, to win both tournaments at the Olympiad.
The matches of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 generated over 3.7 million Hours Watched, making it the third-highest total among all professional chess tournaments this year. Peak viewership hit 136,400, ranking fourth among chess events during the same period. The match between India and the USA in the open tournament on September 21 drew the most excitement from viewers.
The event was primarily covered on YouTube and Twitch, with these platforms accounting for over 96% of the total watch time. In terms of language, around 73% of viewers tuned into English broadcasts, while Turkish and Spanish streams combined made up about 10% of the total.
The main audience followed the tournament on the ChessBase India channel, as well as on various channels from Chess24. Several community casters also provided coverage, with American chess player Hikaru Nakamura — currently ranked second in the world — standing out. Notably, he chose not to participate in the Olympiad but covered it on his Kick hannel.
Most Watched Chess Tournaments in 2024
As of now, the most popular chess tournament of the year is the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024, which peaked at over 337,600 concurrent viewers. This places it fourth among all FIDE tournaments.
The current chess tournament season isn’t over yet, so we can expect changes in the rankings of top tournaments as the year goes on. In December, several major events are coming up, including the 2024 FIDE World Championship and the World Championships in Rapid and Blitz. You can stay updated on upcoming tournament schedules at ChessWatch.com.
