StRoGo Tops Co-streams as IEM Cologne Major Breaks Records

The IEM Cologne Major 2026, held in Cologne, Germany, recorded more than 100 million hours watched and reached a peak audience above 2.75 million concurrent viewers.

Ivan ‘StRoGo’ Shurpatov was the top community caster at the event, generating 11.7 million hours watched and a career-high peak of about 315,000 concurrent viewers, second only to the official tournament broadcasts.

Other leading community streamers included Mark ‘ohnePixel’ Zimmermann, Alexandre ‘Gaules’ Borba Chiqueta, Igor ‘SL4M’ Sopov and Luciano ‘forg1’ Forgione.

SL4M and Gaules distributed their coverage across multiple platforms. Forg1 led the event’s presence on Kick and was a major driver of that platform’s viewership for the Major.

Twitch remained the largest venue for Counter-Strike broadcasts. Kick accounted for more than 11% of the tournament’s total hours watched, and YouTube also held a notable share of viewers.

Official tournament streams retained the largest single audiences. Community co-streams ran alongside the official feeds and added additional hours watched, contributing to the overall totals.

The 2026 Major drew a large number of community casters who streamed from the venue and remotely, producing a multi-platform viewing landscape for the event.