Ludwig’s Chessboxing Event

Even though it was originally promoted as a combination of boxing and chess, popular streamer Ludwig Ahgren’s Mogul Chessboxing Championship unintentionally surpassed EVO 2019 as the most watched Smash competition ever.

In the Mogul Chessboxing Championship preliminary rounds, the competitors engaged in a mix of boxing and Super Smash Bros. Melee. On December 11, 2022, the event was livestreamed on YouTube, breaking not just the Smash record but also the record for shroud’s best Twitch and YouTube audience. Ludwig’s livestream of the melee action drew a staggering 270k viewers at its busiest. In contrast, EVO 2019, which peaked at 245k viewers on Twitch, was the Smash Tournament that is currently the second most watched. 

With only two matches involving the popular Nintendo fighter, it isn’t a full-fledged Smash battle, but it still qualifies as a high-stakes, aired tournament with Smash. In light of these figures, Ludwig’s Mogul Chessboxing Championship has deservedly won the title the most popular Super Smash Bros. competition.

A brief glance at EVO 2019’s audience across all streams, which is essentially a total of all co-streams, shows 279k concurrent viewers. This figure technically surpasses the viewership for the preliminary round of Ludwig’s tournament, but comparing the two would be unfair. The prelim peak viewership statistics provided by Ludwig are based on just one broadcast source, not on all co-streams.

Additionally, Chessboxing Championship, which continued to highlight chess rather than Super Smash Bros. Melee, crossed the 300k audience barrier during its peak.