Stage 4 Major draws record 378,000 peak Call of Duty viewers

The Stage 4 Major of the 2026 Call of Duty League in Nanterre, France, reached a peak audience of more than 378,000 viewers, the highest peak recorded for a Call of Duty esports event. The tournament logged more than 4.7 million hours watched, placing it inside the franchise’s all-time top 10 by that metric.

Viewership figures point to strong local interest in Paris Gentle Mates and their co-owner, streamer Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein. Gotaga ran a community broadcast alongside the official feed; his channel became the most-watched stream of the event, surpassing the league broadcast and other co-streams.

Paris Gentle Mates’ roster includes four American players, but local promotion and the partnership that created the team turned the Nanterre event into a de facto home tournament for French fans.

The tournament’s most-watched individual match was the semifinal between Paris Gentle Mates and OpTic Gaming, which posted a higher peak than the Grand Final. After Gentle Mates were eliminated, French-language viewership for the final fell by about 100,000 peak viewers compared with the semifinal.

The Stage 4 Major continued a season-long rise in peak audiences. Each Major in the 2026 season exceeded the prior year’s peak numbers. The most-watched Major of 2025 reached 233,000 peak viewers; even the least-watched Major in 2026 recorded more than 260,000 peak viewers. Two of the three all-time highest peak audiences for Call of Duty events occurred during the 2026 season.

Changes in team partnerships broadened European engagement. In late 2025, Los Angeles Guerrillas formed a partnership with Gentle Mates to create Paris Gentle Mates. Toronto Ultra partnered with Spanish organization Movistar KOI and now competes under the Toronto KOI name. Those agreements increased the league’s presence in France and Spain.

On the competitive side, OpTic Gaming reached the Grand Final at every Major during the 2026 season. Outside the professional league, some streamer tournaments and entertainment-focused showcases for the wider Call of Duty franchise recorded larger audiences than the Stage 4 Major.

The Call of Duty League Championship will take place in Las Vegas from July 16–19 and will feature the top eight teams from the season, including OpTic Texas, Los Angeles Thieves and Paris Gentle Mates. Organizers plan to publish viewership figures for the Championship after the event.