This past weekend, the most-watched season of the ESL Pro League came to an end at the Verizon Theatre in Dallas, Texas. In the semifinals, G2 Esports faced SK Gaming and North battled Team Liquid. Both matches went 2-0 in favor of the European teams and it was G2 Esports who came out victorious in the best-of-five Grand Finals on Championship Sunday.



Over the course of Season 5, ESL Pro League content garnered just under 65 million video views, a 17.5% increase from Season 4. With English language broadcast rights exclusive to YouTube, the ESL Counter-Strike YouTube channel following grew by 163% and broadcasts in 14 additional languages were streamed directly to Facebook and Twitch.



Season 5 was all over social media, resulting in 510 million impressions on Facebook and Twitter alone. Continuing with ESL’s efforts to innovate in the area of virtual reality, the Finals were also streamed live on YouTube in VR, reaching peak concurrent viewership of over 5,000.

“Dallas is in many ways a home of competitive Counter-Strike and we’re happy to have brought a successful weekend of esports to the Verizon Theatre for the first stand-alone ESL Pro League Finals in the United States,” said Ulrich Schulze, VP of Pro Gaming, ESL. “With the record-setting 2017 prize pool and increased global reach of Pro League we’re looking forward to even more excitement in Season 6.”



“As the most widely watched CS:GO league, we are thrilled with the results of the Pro League Season 5 finals and viewership numbers reached,” said Ken Hershman, Executive Chairman and Commissioner of WESA. “Congratulations to G2 on their win, as well as all of the participating teams that make Pro League the world's best CS:GO league.”



Pro League will return this August for Season 6 with another US$1,000,000 up for grabs for the world’s top CS:GO talent. To stay up to date on all information about the upcoming season, visit the official Pro League website and follow ESL Counter-Strike on Twitter and Facebook.

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