We have since learned that on the Premier League’s Facebook account alone, the grand finals saw three million views! That’s an incredible number for FIFA 20. All told, the Premier League Esports Invitational secured over 150 million total video views, which is massive. According to Nielson Sports, this is across their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.

This Premier League Esports Invitational debuted last month, as the real-life season was forced to close due to COVID-19. Ultimately this led to players from English club soccer’s best of the best competing in EA’s FIFA 20. The grand finals took place on April 25, with Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Diogo Jota going over Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.

SportsPro revealed the figures for the stream, announcing that the final had three million views on the official Facebook account, and 394,000 views on YouTube. That’s pretty huge for soccer esports, we think. To compare, eNASCAR averaged 1.1 million viewers on Fox Sports, so that’s pretty comparable.

The semi-finals had about the same number of views. The quarter-finals, day three, round of 16, and opening rounds pulled in 2.7 million, 2.2 million, 1.9 million, and 800,000 views respectively on the Premier League’s Facebook page. The longer this went on, the more people got excited, it seems.

Alexander-Arnold’s semi-finals battle with Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling also landed 1.4 million views on Liverpool’s Facebook account alone! So, the tournament achieved a viewership increase of 275%, from the opening round to the finals. That is thrilling to hear. We’re glad to see that football fans have plenty to be excited about.

This was viewable more than just on social media though. The Premier League Invitational was shown on UK pay-TV broadcaster, Sky Sports via Main Event, and Premier League channels. This landed an average audience of 70,000.

For context, Sky’s most-watched Premier League game for this season was Liverpool versus Manchester City in November, which had 3.36 million viewers. That was the third most-viewed Premier League broadcast in the network’s history. What this tells me, is that there is an audience here for the ePremier League. Some people are at least interested in watching virtual FIFA, and that means there will be more!

A second ePremierLeague invitational kicks off May 5 with all 20 top-flight clubs. There will be a nice mix of pro players and personalities, such as former world cruiserweight boxing champion (and die-hard Everton fan) Tony Bellew! Don’t miss out on the Premier League on Facebook or Sky Sports! We’re just excited to see that football esports are a hit with their audience with the Premier League Esports Invitational. We’re curious to see what the numbers for this next series will be.