Last weekend, the FTX Crypto Cup (the second major of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 chess series organized by Play Magnus and Chess24) came to an end in Miami. The event with a prize pool of $210K was attended by eight grandmasters, including multiple world champion Magnus Carlsen and 17-year-old Indian talent Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who met in the decisive match of the final round.
Tournament results
Magnus Carlsen became the champion of FTX Crypto Cup for the second year in a row. The game between the Norwegian and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the final ended with a draw, which was enough for Carlsen to win the tournament. At the same time, the Indian grandmaster turned out to be stronger than the world champion during tie-breaks, earning two rather important points for himself, which allowed him to become a runner-up of the event. It is worth saying that this is the third championship for Carlsen within the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 series, thanks to which the grandmaster strengthened his leadership in the tour leaderboard.
Thanks to the victory over Carlsen in tie-breaks, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa reached the same number of points as Alirez Firouzja and took the second spot in the tournament, as he had already defeated the Frenchman in a face-to-face meeting. Note that the 17-year-old boy beat everyone except the Vietnamese Le Quang Liem and the Pole Jan-Krzystof Duda at the tournament in Miami.
FTX Crypto Cup 2022 viewership statistics
In total, FTX Crypto Cup 2022 broadcasts generated more than 999.4K Hours Watched and attracted 27K Average Viewers. The mark of 63.7K Peak Viewers was reached during the match between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Anish Giri in the seventh and final round of the tournament.
FTX Crypto Cup 2022 Viewership
Over 85% of the tournament’s Hours Watched were generated by YouTube viewers, while the Twitch audience contributed only 13%. Matches were broadcasted in nine languages, with English being the most popular of them. English-language broadcasts gathered 47.8K Peak Viewers, and the contribution of the language to the tournament’s total Hours Watched exceeded 73%. The top 5 languages of the event also included Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, and Spanish.
The most popular FTX Crypto Cup 2022 broadcast channel was chess24 on YouTube: the channel's viewers generated 367.4K Hours Watched and attracted 21.7K Peak Viewers. The second spot by each of the indicators was taken by the English-language channel ChessBase India. GMHikaru was closing the top 3 by Peak Viewers, while personal channel of Magnus Carlsen was closing it by Hours Watched.
Most popular Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 tournaments
Among the most popular Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 tournaments, FTX Crypto Cup 2022 was ranked third by Peak Viewers and second by Average Viewers. It was lagging behind the leader (Airthings Masters 2022) by more than 38% and almost 43% in terms of Peak and Average Viewers, respectively.
The FTX Crypto Cup failed to enter the top 5 chess tournaments of 2022 despite having the status of a Major. The most popular tournament of the year is still FIDE Candidates 2022, which was followed by over 204K Peak Viewers. The top 5 by this indicator also included Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022, Airthings Masters 2022, FIDE Grand Prix 2022 Leg 1, and Chessable Masters 2022.
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Two more regular tournaments will take place as part of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 series, scheduled for September and October. And the season will end with the final major, which will be held on November 11-20.
