Esports World Cup 2025: Tekken 8, TFT garner top viewership numbers

Week 6 of the Esports World Cup 2025 brought two standout championships in Riyadh, with Tekken 8 and Teamfight Tactics each setting viewership milestones for their respective titles.

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  Fast Payouts

At the Boulevard Riyadh City from August 13-16, the Tekken 8 Esports World Cup went down as the most-watched event in the franchise’s history. With a record US$1,000,000 prize pool and 32 of the world’s best players competing, the tournament delivered shock exits and dramatic upsets. Big names like Arslan “ArslanAsh” Siddique and Bae “Knee” Jae-Min were eliminated early, while Lim “Ulsan” Soo-hoon powered through to become just the second back-to-back champion in Esports World Cup history. Ulsan’s win also pushed him to the top of Tekken’s all-time earnings list at US$445,391.

The event drew massive global interest, highlighted by a peak of 89,728 viewers during a Group D clash between Han “Mulgold” Jae-gyun and Atif “ATIF” Ijaz. South Korea dominated the later stages, filling all semifinal slots and sweeping the podium, which helped drive a 339% surge in Korean-language watch time compared to 2024. By the end, the Tekken championship had racked up 1.35 million hours watched—nearly double last year and a new record for the title.

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  The bookies' bookie

Meanwhile, Teamfight Tactics (TFT) wrapped up on August 15 as one of the year’s top 10 most-viewed events. 16 elite squads battled for the lion’s share of the US$500,000 prize pool, with China’s Weibo Gaming putting on a clinic. They cruised through groups unbeaten and lost just two games in the playoffs before beating Virtus.pro’s Vietnamese roster in the grand final.

Although three of the five most popular matches came from the group stage, the semifinal clash between South Korea’s T1 and Virtus.pro stole the spotlight with 53,440 peak viewers. The absolute peak came during Team Falcons’ duel with Virtus.pro, hitting 60,892 — almost twice the high from 2024. The hometown crowd played a major role, with Arabic-language viewership spiking by over 2300% year-on-year. In total, TFT at the EWC 2025 delivered 1.3 million hours watched, securing a spot in the title’s all-time top 10.

Together, the two events underscored the Esports World Cup’s growing pull: record-breaking fighting game viewership and rising momentum for strategy esports, fueled by both global legends and surging regional fanbases.