The UK’s largest e-sports tournament, ESL One Birmingham, saw over 306,000 people tune in via live stream to the event at Arena Birmingham.

The tournament, which saw players competing in the game DOTA 2,  surpassed the highest viewership for an ESL One event thus far.

Arena Birmingham opened its doors to over 24,000 fans over three days. The tournament was watched for over 7.6 million hours online over the course of the weekend, and saw nearly 8 million video views and just over 6 million impressions on social media.

Team Secret, who now hold four ESL One titles, rose to victory and claimed their share of the $300,000 prize pool.

UK Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, Margot James (pictured above), attended the event and met with the players, teams, and the production crew. She said “it opened [her] eyes to the sheer variety of careers that are on offer in the e-sports environment” via Twitter.

Ian Congdon, head of venue sales at Arena Birmingham, said: “We are thrilled to have hosted such a prestigious international event for the second year running. Arena Birmingham is one of the busiest and best equipped large-scale indoor venues in Europe, so it’s the ideal place to hold an event of this type which welcomes the most passionate of esports fans from across the globe.”

Scott Gillingham, UK Gaming and esports Lead at Intel UK, said: “We have seen incredible support from the UK esports community in the last year, so it’s been fantastic to return with ESL One Birmingham in 2019. Intel is committed to the future of esports, from hosting major tournaments to investing in the ideas, communities, and talent to show the world that esports is here to stay.”