Previously, we looked over the most successful Chess live streamers of 2023. In this piece, rather on focusing on the content creators that made Chess great in 2023, we are looking through the Chess tournaments which contributed the most content to the online sphere.
This includes a ranking of events both by watch time and peak viewership: the combination of both metrics allows a fairer overview of the most popular Chess events of the year. Some of the most popular Chess live streamers of the year generated their most popular content while covering competitive Chess events, and the competitive nature of Chess lends itself well to solid viewership for tournaments.
In general, Chess is in a good place in terms of its live streaming audience. Compared to 2022, Chess tournaments and events generated 15% more watch time in 2023 and the most popular event of 2023, the FIDE World Championship 2023, garnered a peak viewership 157% higher than the most popular tournament of 2022.
Chess is showing everyone that the pandemic renaissance for the game in live streaming was not a fluke and that the game is to stay as a staple of the live streaming community. Although the excitement and hype for the game have slowed down, viewership statistics and dynamics are green and showing growth for 2023.
Most Watched Chess Tournaments of 2023
The singular most watched Chess tournament of 2023 was the FIDE World Championship 2023. The match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren took place to determine the new World Chess Champion after the previous champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title.
After the classical time format, the score was a 7-7 tie between the two Grandmasters. The event advanced to the tiebreaks and viewership for the event quickly rose as fans waited for the new champion to be crowned. Eventually, Ding Liren won with black to become the champion, making himself the first-ever Chinese player to hold the title of World Chess Champion. In total, the championship match generated 11.44M Hours Watched: the most watched tournament of the year by a considerable margin.
In second place was the FIDE World Cup 2023 with 8.45M Hours Watched. The 2023 iteration was the 10th edition of the World Cup and over 200 players from around the globe came together to compete for the title. Although the event was one of the most prestigious events of the year, many of the world’s best did not compete.
World Champion Ding Liren declined to participate, alongside high-ranking Grandmasters Alireza Firouzja, Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, and more. Ultimately, Magnus Carlsen claimed another tournament victory after beating 18-year-old Chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the Final.
The Tata Steel Chess 2023 event claimed third on this ranking, having generated 4.86M Hours Watched in early 2023. The Tata Steel Chess tournament series traces its roots back to the late 1930s, and it continues to draw attention every year. The 2023 iteration of the Dutch tournament saw some of the most famous names in chess compete against one another: Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Ding Liren, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and many more. The event received roughly the same watch time as the previous year, with slightly fewer HW recorded in 2023.
Finishing off this ranking, the Champions Chess Tour 2023 Finals and the Speed Chess Championship 2023 settled into fourth and fifth, respectively. The former of these events was the ultimate final of the CCT in 2023, and it received 3.48M HW, significantly more viewership than most other CCT events of the year. The Speed Chess Championship 2023 garnered 2.6M HW, just slightly more than the 2022 iteration of the same event could manage in the previous year. Although it received more watch time in 2023, it slid down the rankings of this top 5 from third in 2022 to fifth in 2023, as the official FIDE events claimed more spots in 2023.
Most Popular Chess Events of 2023
Turning towards the other metric of our ranking, the top events of the year remain the same when peak concurrent viewership is accounted for. The official FIDE events of 2023 claimed the top spots here too, with the FIDE World Championship 2023 reaching 572K Peak Viewers.
For all events listed except one, the peak viewership was reached during the final match and or game of the tournament: Chess.Com Pogchamps 5 reached its peak viewership of 182K during the match between xQc and Papaplatte, hosted on only Day 2 of the event. In fact, all games featuring these two creators were highly popular and supported by their audiences; the Grand Final where CDawgVA emerged victorious did not even rank within the top 10 most popular matches of the event.
Chess.com PogChamps 5 was the only event on this ranking to not be starstudded with Grandmasters and some of the most popular names in Chess, but rather some of the most popular names in live streaming. PogChamps 5 was advertised as “Where Chess Meets Celebrities”, and this is a promise it fulfilled. Creators from all corners of the industry competed; Tyler1, Wirtual, xQc, and CDawgVA all competed, and in total the players of the event boasted a combined 25M+ Followers on Twitch, not even including the participants who stream on YouTube Live instead.
The only event we have not yet looked at, Airthings Masters 2023, received 171K PV. The Airthings Masters 2023 was the inaugural tournament of the Champions Chess Tour 2023, and the most popular tournament of the year for the Chess tour. The Final between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura was a best-case scenario for the event’s viewership, featuring two of the most famous names in Chess, and excitement for the CCT may have simply been higher at the beginning of the season.
Chess did grow throughout 2023. The ancient game is finding a place for itself in live streaming after the excitement during the pandemic has calmed down slightly. Fans are nevertheless still excited for chess content, and the dynamics show that the sector is generally gaining traction. 2024 will likely be an important year for chess, as new streamers join the industry, established chess creators move into other endeavours, and the industry continues to evolve. Keep an eye on the changes with an objective overview of the stats with ChessWatch.
