Chess.com Pogchamps 5, the most popular chess event involving content creators, came to a fantastic close as the Finals — the first participants faced each other personally in the series — saw a nervy CDawgVA defeat Franks-is-heres 3:1 to become the fifth PogChampion. It also ended as one of the more successful Pog iterations, thanks in no small part to the continuous efforts of the organizers, participants, community streamers, and the historic nature of the last day.
Fans also witnessed Wirtual beat QTCinderella in the Consolation Bracket Final and Erobb221 get familial bragging rights after going past his brother Tyler1 in a mid-event side clash. The winner of the Championship Bracket took home $20K and the PogChamps trophy while the runner-up earned $12K, with the total prize pool being $100K.
Chess.com Pogchamps 5 recorded 182K Peak Viewers on August 7, Day 2 of the Playoffs, when xQc and Papaplatte faced off in the battle of two of the most sought-after streamers of 2023. The former was part of four of the top five matches at this chess tournament, with the being the only other one with multiple appearances, with two.
Interestingly, four of the top five games were from the Group Stage, where fans got to sus out the contenders among their favorite creators and watch prominent participants butt heads. Fans were especially interested in xQc's progress, and after taking lessons from Hikaru Nakamura, he repaid their faith by going all the way to the Championship Bracket Semi Finals, where he lost 0:2 to Frank. He was a big part of the event registering 2M Hours Watched and 40K Average Viewers over an airtime of 51 hours and 50 minutes.
Among streamers who regularly broadcast the event, xQc and Papaplatte were by far the most popular, doing even better than the official chess.com Twitch channel by 110.3% and 41.7%, respectively. It also meant their fans helped dominate the watch hours charts, with English and German being the two most dominant languages in the fifth edition of this series.
The Canadian Twitch/Kick superstar was also the most-watched individual channel, with Ludwig in second. The latter and his companies, Mogul Moves and Offbrand, were the main sponsors of Chess.com Pogchamps 5. The American was also part of the commentary team for the Finals alongside hosting watch parties on his YouTube channel.
Overall, 31 channels streamed some part of Chess' most popular exhibition event, although only a handful were active across the tournament. They were xQc, Ludwig, Tyler1, Papaplatte, and Anna Cramling, a Spanish-Swedish chess player, streamer, and Woman FIDE Master.
As with any event involving celebrities and competition, there were peaks and troughs regarding viewership. A glance at the charts shows that there was a steady build-up of audiences over the first few days before it exploded for the first time near the end of the Group Stage when xQc had a slew of matches in a quick time.
Apart from him, the likes of Tyler1 and Papaplatte were most followed, as seen in the most popular matches list, with stats after the event reflecting this trend. The end of the Group Stage, when there were lots at stake for the participants and eliminations became common, was when watchers were most active, with only a handful of games from the Playoffs doing better.
Among the five Chess.com Pogchamps events held so far, the fifth edition was the second most popular and third most watched, with the leader on both counts being Chess.com Pogchamps 3. These are also the only two iterations to cross 50 hours of airtime, although the latest one was the first to have competitors duke it out face-to-face.
The organizer has done such a fabulous job in marketing and presenting the series that the third iteration remains the third most popular and fourth most watched Chess event ever. With constant interest and participation from some of the biggest names in streaming and the inclusion of star-studded commentary panels, there is only one way to go for it — up.
PogChamps 5 Championship Bracket results
- 1st place - CDawgVA
- 2nd place - Franks-is-heres
- 3rd/4th place - xQc/Ididathing
PogChamps 5 Consolation Bracket results
- 1st place - Wirtual
- 2nd place - QTCinderella
- 3rd/4th place - Daily Dose of Internet/Squeex
