Brawl Stars World Finals 2025 sees massive viewership drop - is the esports scene in trouble?

While mobile esports is a growing scene as a whole, not every title is seeing growth in 2025. 

The Brawl Stars World Finals 2025 had a shocking drop in viewership compared to previous years, raising concerns about the mobile game's esports scene. A game that once had a record-breaking 1.1 million peak viewers reported just 211,000 over the weekend, according to Esports Charts. 

Why did Brawl Stars World Finals viewership decline? 

There is no confirmed reason as to why this year's Brawl Stars World Finals had such bad viewership, but fans believe it's a mixture of location and unfortunate tournament results. 

First, the Brawl Stars World Finals were held at DreamHack Stockholm this year rather than during an event dedicated solely to Supercell games. Last year, the Brawl Stars World Final, Clash Royale World Finals, and Clash of Clans World Finals were all held at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Center. Brawl Stars' viewership was likely helped along by mobile esports fans who decided to just watch all three, even if Brawl Stars wasn't their main game. 

Does this mean that Brawl Stars doesn't have a big fanbase of its own? This isn't totally confirmed, although Brawl Stars fans were likely disappointed with the action itself this year. 

While Crazy Raccoon claimed the victory and the lion's share of the $1 million prize pool, the earlier matches didn't keep the hype going and many fans could have lost interest. 

Crazy Raccoon was dominant early on and many matches were one-sided throughout the Playoffs. Many matches had a 3-0 result, which means one team had easily wiped the other. That's usually not the most exciting to watch. Esports Charts reported that matches near the end of the Playoffs with 2-3 records had more viewership, with fans likely tuning in to see more evenly skilled teams face off. 

While fans tuned in from YouTube and Twitch, it just didn't carry the same hype as it did in 2024. This doesn't mean Brawl Stars is truly in trouble. We'll just have to see if 2025 has better storylines and more exciting matches. 

It's definitely a bummer after such a buildup.