International tournament organizer BLAST announced Friday that its summer Counter-Strike 2 competition, BLAST.tv Austin Major, generated $102 million in total economic impact to the Austin region.
In addition, BLAST claims that 30,248 out-of-state attendees were part of the audience during the four day event at the Moody Center, with fans from 37 countries and and all 50 U.S. states in attendance.
In addition to the economic impact to local hotels, restaurants, and other merchants in the Austin area, BLAST claims that the event generated $46 million in media value generated for commercial partners as well as 37 billion brand impressions across the entire event.
BLAST.tv Austin Major took place from June 19 – 22, and featured 32 teams competing for a chunk of a total prize pool of $1.25 million, with Team Vitality ultimately winning against The MongolZ 2-1 in the grand finals.
The competition was facilitated in partnership with Live Nation, C3 Presents and the Austin Sports Commission. BLAST claims that it “was one of the largest esports events ever hosted in the United States with over 40,000 attending in person and millions more watching online across 105+ territories in more than 30 languages.”
It should also be noted that the BLAST.tv Austin Major recorded 76.1 million hours watched across a total of 135-hour airtime, according to data from Esports Charts. At the time (in June) it became the most watched Counter-Strike competition in history.