In 2025, chess may not have made as much noise as in the previous few years, but it still enjoyed significant gains, especially as an esports entity. This much was evident by its debut at the Esports World Cup, where it saw some top Grandmasters, such as Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Hikaru Nakamura, turn out for iconic outfits like Team Liquid, Natus Vincere and Team Spirit.
The game also continued to earn new fans by heading to different corners of the globe via iconic series like the Grand Chess Tour, the World Chess Cup, the World Rapid & Blitz Championships and the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. We even saw the return of the celebrated PogChamps event, which brings together influencers, celebrities and amateur chess players as they battle for bragging rights.
With so much happening, here's a look back at the top tournaments in chess by Hours Watched and Peak Viewers in 2025. While its growing stature in the livestreaming scene means that the ancient sport has become a mix of traditional, esports and influencer-led competitions, these tables continue to be dominated by entries from the professional level.
Most-watched chess events in 2025
The top chess tournament by watch time last year was the Tata Steel Chess 2025, one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. Hosted in India and often called the "Wimbledon of Chess", home hero GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu claimed he title. He beat his countryman and world champion, GM Gukesh Dommaraju, in the blitz playoffs, which came about as both had tied for points after 13 rounds.
Coming in second was the Norway Chess 2025 with around 3 million Hours Watched (HW), just behind the Indian event. Magnus Carlsen clinched his seventh title in this series, ahead of Gukesh D and fellow influencer-player GM Hikaru Nakamura. A topsy-turvy tournament that proved to be fiercely competitive throughout was bookended by the fact that no player finished it unbeaten.
Rounding off the podium was the FIDE World Chess Cup 2025, another event held in India. Qualification for the next Candidates Tournament was up for grabs, while a prize pool of $2 million put it among the highest recorded in the game. Eventually, Uzbek GM Javokhir Sindarov won the title, beating Chinese GM Wei Yi 1.5-0.5 in tiebreaks in the final to emerge as the youngest ever World Cup winner.
The inaugural chess event at the Esports World Cup 2025 comes next, propped up by a hefty prize pool of $1.5 million. Magnus Carlsen was victorious here as well, helping Team Liquid to win the multi-disciplinary series and earning it 1000 Club Championship points. It also ended as 2025's most popular chess tournament, peaking at 259,353 live viewers during the final between the World No 1 and Alireza Firouzja.
Next is the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 - Weissenhaus, which just about crossed the 2 million HW mark. GM Vincent Keymer triumphed here, taking home $200,000 and 25 Grand Slam Points. It was perhaps the biggest win in the career of the 21-year-old German, as he went undefeated against star names like GMs Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian.
Two more Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 events — Paris and Las Vegas — find places here, with both doing between 1.4 and 1.9 million HW. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian were the winners, respectively, with the former ultimately crowned as the champion of this multi-million dollar series of events in the Freestyle Chess (Chess960) variant.
Three FIDE competitions rounded off this leaderboard, led by the last two editions of the FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship. The 2024 iteration, held over a longer period, touched 1.93 million HW as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the title amid much controversy.
There was no such issue in the next edition, held over two days at the end of 2025, as the Norwegian legend beat GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the final match to earn his ninth world blitz title. It was also his 20th world championship title across all three time controls, and for the fifth time, Carlsen wears the double crown of both rapid and blitz world champion.
The final entry is the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, a $625,000 prize pool event where qualification for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament was at stake. Anish Giri won the Open tournament and was joined by Matthias Bluebaum in qualifying for the world title qualifiers. Among women, Vaishali Rameshbabu and Kateryna Lagno tied for first to qualify for the Candidates, although the former took top spot on tiebreak.
Most popular chess events in 2025
Quite a few entries from the above table also make it here, led by the EWC 2025 for Chess. As expected, Carlsen and Nakamura, two of the game's biggest draws among audiences, were part of four of the tournament's most popular games, including their clash from Day 1 of the Playoffs.
Second is the Norway Chess 2025, which hit 251,184 Peak Viewers during the last round. A series of events could have ensured that either Gukesh or Carlsen could have walked away with the title, but it was the world champion who blundered the most to ensure the home hero clinched yet another prestigious crown.
The FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2024 was the only other competition to pass the 200,00 PV mark. It reached this mark on the final day, when Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi played out an intense tiebreak that ended in draws and then decided to share the Open title, much to the surprise of fans and pundits.
The 2025 edition is next, reaching its peak during the Magnus Carlsen versus Nodirbek Abdusattorov Grand Final. The corresponding Rapid event also made the cut, peaking at almost 123,000 viewers during Round 12 on the final day, when Carlsen claimed his sixth world rapid championship title a full point ahead of the field with 10.5 out of 13 points.
The three Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour 2025 events — Las Vegas, Paris and Weissenhaus — also found places here. We also have the Tata Steel Chess 2025, which ended as the series' most popular event with 125,707 Peak Viewers, achieved during the final day, as home heroes Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh battled for the honor of being called champion.
Last but not least is the Champions Chess Tour 2025 - Chessable Masters with 99,574 PV. With an ideal Grand Final that pitted Carlsen against Nakamura in a battle of the top two-ranked players in the world, it finished as the 2025 Champions Chess Tour's most popular event. Just for the record, Carlsen came out on top here as well.
Chess continued to be a steady presence on livestreaming in 2025, with some of its events doing solid numbers. However, with superstars like Nakamura and Carlsen increasingly splitting their professional commitments with endeavors like content creation, it remains to be seen if the new generation does enough to keep audiences engaged.
