ESL Pro League is the longest-running event in CS:GO history. This tournament was conducted 15 times across 8 years, from 2015 to 2023. The ESL Pro League prize pool rose from $250,000 to $850,000 over the course of its run. No team won it more than 2 times.

ESL has been the organizer behind seven CS:GO Majors. That’s more than a third of the 19 total Majors. The two organizers that are closest to this record, DreamHack and PGL, have fewer Majors combined, with three each. ESL’s CS:GO longevity is highlighted by the eight-and-a-half year gap between their first Major, EMS One Katowice 2014, and their last, IEM Rio 2022.

Katowice and Cologne are the joint-capital of CS:GO Majors. Each city has been the host of three Majors, with Cologne hosting the biggest CS:GO event in three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016. Jönköping is the only other location that’s hosted multiple Majors.

The World Electronic Sports Games, or WESG for short, holds the record for the largest prize pool in CS:GO outside of Valve-sponsored Majors. WESG 2016 and WESG 2017 both offered $1.5 million in prize money, which beats ELEAGUE Season 1’s offering by $100,000. PGL Major Stockholm’s $2 million prize pool is the largest in CS:GO overall.

PGL Major Stockholm set the CS:GO record for highest viewership, with 2.7 million people watching the NAVI-G2 grand final, 600,000 more than PGL Major Antwerp in second place. PGL Stockholm makes another appearance in the top 5. The semi-final between NAVI and Gambit is the fourth most watched CS:GO match ever, with 1.4 million viewers.

PGL Major Antwerp’s grand final between FaZe and NAVI was a big enough attraction to set a record for the largest live audience at a CS:GO event. According to PGL’s official report, over 20,000 spectators showed up to watch the final at the 25,000 capacity Antwerps Sportpaleis.