Ludwig's Mogul Chessboxing Championship cost $1.6 million according to Mogul Moves members, turned no profits despite success

Ludwig Ahgren's recent Mogul Chessboxing Championship was a massive deal in the streaming community. With its huge production team, iconic content creators, and chess players participating, the occasion not only broke his personal viewing records, but became the most-watched chessboxing event ever.

Ahgren had previously stated while commentating that organizing the event took around $1.5 million. However, on the latest episode of The Yard, the Mogul Moves event director Aiden revealed that the exact number is $1.6 million and that despite the fanfare surrounding the Mogul Chessboxing Championship, the event had failed to turn a profit.

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"Almost making money": Ludwig's Mogul Chessboxing Championship was close to breaking even

The Mogul Chessboxing Championship was months in the making, with several streamers and content creators hyping it up. The line-up included well-known chess players and creators like Myth, Andrea Botez, Disguised Toast, Lawrence Trent, and Aman Hambleton, drawing a huge crowd.

Around 100K people were already waiting at the "Starting soon" screen of the YouTube livestream. The count reached 300K within an hour, peaking at around 316K concurrent viewers during the event, per Streamercharts.

While talking to each other on the latest episode of The Yard podcast, Aiden revealed the cost of organizing the event:

"It was $1.6 million I think."

Ludwig's manager Slime added that despite so many people watching the stream, they barely missed out on breaking even:

"Guess what, we were really close. We didn't hit it, but we were really close to hitting the green... Nick Wang messaged me last night, undercover, and he said, 'Okay, true final numbers. Not in the green but super close.' And I'm like that's crazy."

With that revelation, Aiden told the group that he was impressed with the revenue numbers, and Ludwig quipped:

"Come on baby, come on baby, come on. Almost making money, almost making money."

Organizing the event and arranging an arena with seating for 10K people around a boxing ring with a drop-down chess board is no mean feat. This was especially impressive, considering it was produced by Ludwig and his group of friends cum business partners.

With big names such as Chess.com, Fansly, CashApp, and Starforge behind the Mogul Chessboxing championship, it is no wonder that the event was a proper extravagant affair. It was complete with walkouts and official chessboxing referees mixed in with a few games of Smash Bros.

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Reddit reactions to the financial situation behind the event

Here are some of the reactions from r/LivestreamFail after the clip was shared. Most commended the initiative.

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The Mogul Chessboxing Championship is not the first major event hosted by the team this year, with Ludwig anchoring the first-ever Mogul Money Live at the YouTube Theater earlier in 2022.

The YouTuber is known for his big collaborative events, and the chessboxing championship allowed him to combine the two popular games in a niche format and present it to a large audience.

After the success of this year's chessboxing tournament, the streamer has shown interest in making it an annual gig. For those who missed the event, here are some of the top moments from the action-packed night.

For now, fans are looking forward to The Scuffed World Tour, organized by Ludwig and co. after the Nintendo controversy.