The Halo Infinite esport season has just kicked off with the Raleigh Major and it’s already shattering records as it became the most-watched Halo event of all time.
It had been nearly two years since the Halo Championship Series held an open bracket event but Raleigh is finally here and delivering the hype.
Raleigh is featuring over 200 teams battling it out for their share of $250,000 and HCS Points in the Halo circuit.
While the event reached just its first of three days, 343 Industries Viewership Lead Tashi announced that this event has already become the most-watched ever.
Excited to say that the #HCS Kickoff Major Raleigh 2021 is now the most viewed Halo esports event of all time…and it's only Friday.
Thank you so much to everyone watching from around the world!
— Tashi (@Tashi343i) December 17, 2021
HCS Raleigh becomes most-watched Halo event on day 1
According to Xbox, the previous record stood at 135,000 concurrent viewers at the 2017 Halo World Championship. Despite not seeing an official number, the Halo Infinite category on Twitch was well over 150,000 multiple times throughout the event.
This was just on just the first day, which has been plagued with technical difficulties and crashing issues that are slowing down the pace of matches.
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Despite this, the open event already has multiple storylines brewing. Top-seed Sentinels had to forfeit their pool play spot due to Royal2 “cheating” and are battling through the open bracket.
Also, G2 Esports completed a reverse sweep over NAVI, and Acend’s Snipedrone got the first Overkill on LAN in their win over XSET.
First Halo Infinite LAN Overkill?!? 🤯@Snipedrone picks up 4 to send map 1 to a deciding final round at @HCS Raleigh pic.twitter.com/wUWxV8vPff
— Dexerto Esports (@DexertoEsports) December 17, 2021
Fans are hyped to see the rest of the event unfold as this occurred on the first day and many people expect the Grand Finals to set the bar even higher for viewership records.
Day two is scheduled to start on December 18, at 1 PM ET / 10AM PT. With Championship Sunday set for December 19, at 10 AM ET / 7AM PT.