Just a few years ago, esports was often associated primarily with a youth audience, but today its audience paints a very different picture. New data from an analytical study by Maincast in collaboration with Stream Charts shows that the majority of the audience for Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 streams today consists not of schoolchildren, but of young adults aged 25–34.
This viewer demographic is the largest among all age groups. When watching Dota 2 tournaments, people aged 25–34 make up 64.7% of the audience, while for Counter-Strike 2, their share is 54.7%.
If we consider the broader age group of 18 to 34, it accounts for approximately three-quarters of all viewers: 75% of the Dota 2 audience and 78% of CS2 fans. This confirms that the generation of young people who have grown up alongside the development of this industry now plays a key role in the popularity of esports broadcasts.
At the same time, esports is gradually attracting older viewers as well. The share of the audience aged 35–44 is 21.7% for Dota 2 and 16.5% for Counter-Strike 2. In contrast, there are significantly fewer fans over the age of 45—their share does not exceed 4%.
Maincast notes that this situation is a natural result of the evolution of esports. Many current viewers began following professional tournaments more than ten years ago, when the sport was just gaining popularity. Over time, they didn’t abandon the scene but continued to support their favorite games and teams well into adulthood.
Ukrainian esports is changing the way people consume digital content
Changes in the esports audience are a natural stage in the development of the entire industry. As Maksym Krippa, CEO of ARS Capital, notes, the generation that was introduced to esports competitions more than ten years ago has grown up, but has not lost interest in the discipline.
“We’re seeing a natural process of the industry maturing. People who discovered esports ten to fifteen years ago are now young professionals, but they continue to actively follow tournaments. This is one of the indicators of the market’s maturity. Esports is gradually transitioning from a niche digital hobby to a full-fledged component of the global entertainment industry,” emphasized Maksym Krippa.
The scale of interest in esports in Ukraine is also confirmed by viewership statistics. According to Streams Charts, the Counter-Strike category consistently remains among the most popular genres in the Ukrainian Twitch segment. Over the past year, streams of the game have accumulated a total of over 13 million hours of viewership.
At the same time, esports content has already established itself as one of the most popular formats for sports broadcasts in Ukraine. According to Maincast’s estimates, it ranks third in popularity, trailing only traditional sports—soccer and basketball.
A key indicator of the market’s growth has been the rapid rise of Ukrainian-language content on YouTube. Compared to 2022, the number of views of Ukrainian-language esports content has increased more than 40-fold. Last year alone, this segment grew by another 42%, demonstrating steady demand for broadcasts and analysis in Ukrainian.
One of the most striking examples was Maincast’s coverage of the recent IEM Cologne Major 2026 tournament. The Ukrainian-language broadcast of the competition was streamed directly from the arena in Cologne, where the studio’s commentators and analysts worked live. By the end of the tournament, Maincast’s broadcasts had garnered 11 million views.
Streams Charts statistics for the period from June 1 to 21 also demonstrated high audience interest: Maincast’s CS2 channel ranked among the top three most popular Ukrainian-language livestream channels. During this time, it accumulated 1.11 million hours of watch time, delivering over 536 hours of live content.