Vitality vs Karmine Corp Peaks at 179,000 Viewers

Team Vitality’s group-stage match against Karmine Corp at the RLCS 2026 Paris Major drew a peak audience of 179,000 viewers on opening day, the tournament’s highest single-match peak that day.

Opening-day broadcasts for the Paris Major generated just under 800,000 hours watched, about half of the hours recorded on day one of the RLCS Boston Major. Average viewership and peak concurrent viewers were also roughly half of Boston’s opening-day figures. Those viewership metrics are preliminary while final group-stage statistics are compiled.

The tournament opened with fewer unique broadcasting channels than the Boston event, and Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart, who was the most-watched community caster at Boston, did not cover matches in Paris. The official Twitch channel’s average viewership declined from about 64,800 during Boston’s opening day to roughly 26,000 in Paris. The RLCS YouTube channel showed a smaller drop.

Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein, a French creator who did not stream the Boston Major, is present in Paris. Gentle Mates, the team associated with Gotaga, entered the tournament as the defending champion.

The group stage featured 16 teams divided into four groups. Manchester City Esports upset NRG to take the top seed in Group B and advance to the upper bracket of the double-elimination playoffs. Karmine Corp, Shopify Rebellion and Gentle Mates also finished first in their groups and moved into the upper bracket. Second- and third-place finishers advanced to the lower bracket. Wildcard, Five Fears, TSM and R8 Esports were eliminated after the group stage.

The playoffs run from May 22 to 24. Lower-bracket matches on May 22 include NRG vs FURIA, Twisted Minds vs FUT Esports, Team Vitality vs Ninjas in Pyjamas and Spacestation Gaming vs MIBR. Upper-bracket play on May 23 features Karmine Corp vs Gentle Mates and Manchester City Esports vs Shopify Rebellion.

Updated match results and live audience metrics are being posted on the event’s official pages.