Ludwig’s first Chessboxing event becomes most-watched Smash tournament ever

Though primarily advertised as a mix of boxing and chess, big-name streamer Ludwig Ahgren’s Mogul Chessboxing Championship unintentionally became the most-watched Smash tournament ever, surpassing even EVO 2019 in views.

During the prelims for the Mogul Chessboxing Championship, the contestants faced off in a mix of boxing and Super Smash Bros Melee. The event was livestreamed on YouTube on December 11, 2022, going on to beat not only the all-time Smash record, but even shroud’s best viewership across both Twitch and YouTube..

During the peak viewership on Ludwig’s broadcast of the melee gameplay, the livestream reached a whopping 270k. In comparison, the now second most viewed Smash Tournament was EVO 2019, which achieved a peak viewership of 245k on Twitch.

While technically not a full-fledged Smash competition, with only two matches featuring the hit Nintendo fighter, it does still fall under the same umbrella as a high-stakes, broadcasted tournament with Smash involved.

Therefore, when comparing these numbers, Ludwig’s Mogul Chessboxing Championship rightfully earned its spot as the number one viewed Super Smash Bros tournament.

A quick look at EVO 2019’s viewership across all streams, in essence summing up all co-streams, puts the collective figure at 279k concurrent viewers.

This number technically beats out the viewership number for the prelim section for Ludwig’s tournament, but that’d be like comparing apples to oranges. Ludwig’s prelim peak viewership stat is based on a single broadcast source, not all co-streams. In addition, Chessboxing Championship broke the 300k viewership mark during its peak, which continued on to showcase chess rather than Super Smash Bros Melee.