Zwift Games hailed as 'biggest eSports event in history'

80,000 take part as Freddy Ovett and Kathrin Fuhrer are crowned the inaugural champions

20:05, Friday 5th April 2024

Patrick Fletcher

Deputy Editor

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The Zwift Games have been hailed as a roaring success

The recent Zwift Games have been hailed as “the biggest eSports event in history”, according to the virtual cycling platform that hosted the series of races.

Freddy Ovett, the Australian former runner and current gravel privateer, and Kathrin Fuhrer, the Swiss former Alpine skier, were crowned as the champions of the overall classification of the inaugural Zwift Games.

The Zwift Games was reserved not only for elite and seasoned indoor racers such as Ovett and Fuhrer, but open to all, attracting a total field of some 80,000 people, who competed across 215,000 races.

Zwift’s claims to have put on the biggest ever eSports event were bolstered by what it said were consistently record-breaking field sizes. Races were held ever hour throughout March, with an average peloton of 250 people and 50 races that saw more than 1,0000 people on the start line.

“Following the unprecedented success of the inaugural event, the Zwift Games is set to become an annual fixture and highlight of the Zwift racing calendar for years to come,” read a press release from Zwift.

The Zwift Games saw elite competition alongside mass participation

In the Elite Competition, riders from 35 nations went up against each other in races across three disciplines: Sprint, Climb, and Epic. Taken together, the standings for these events made up the Wahoo overall classification.

In the men’s events, Ovett turned things round late on. With three rounds in the Sprint category, he didn’t make it through to the final of 10 riders, and he was in sixth overall after placing ninth in the 81.5km Epic race. However, he crushed the opposition on the Alpe du Zwift - recording the fastest time in a verified Zwift race - to win the Climb event and take the overall title by a handful of points.

Fuhrer did things the other way around. She won both the Sprint and the Epic events, meaning she just needed to defend on the Alpe du Zwift. She placed sixth at the summit, ensuring a dominant win in the overall standings.

Both riders won a gold-painted Wahoo KICKR Bike indoor training bike - plus a golden in-game bike avatar - and the hefty sum of $10,0000.