League of Legends’ Spring season is still ongoing, but both NA LCS and EU LEC have seen a rise in viewership even prior to the playoffs, where the number is expected to grow even further according to escharts
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NA LCS recovered from a rough and rowdy start
- Peak viewers: 178,814
- Average viewers: 109,512
The loss of a major sponsor (FTX’s bankruptcy), controversial scheduling, and other personnel dramas at the very beginning of the season threatened an already failing LCS. Many expected the region to dip heavily in numbers or just straight up implodes.
But LCS organizers stepped up their game, listened to community’s feedback last minute and adjusted the schedules accordingly. Now although the times are still not preferable for native NA viewers, the bump in European viewership (the original intent of the new scheduling) more than made up for the loss.
On top of that, this season’s NA teams are a lot more fascinating to follow, with FlyQuest’s juggernaut lineup, Doublelift’s one last ride on 100Thieves and Team Liquid’s Korean NA roster being the biggest draws.
2022’s average was 123k, but this included playoffs and 2023 playoffs certainly will raise the numbers up to par.
EU LEC’s new format proved to be very effective
- Peak viewers: 486,661
- Average viewers: 282,297
The LEC has decided to go with a completely different format this year, making the league more like a tournament instead of same old round-robin group stage. The bottom teams get eliminated earlier and got to play fewer matches. This meant more stakes for the teams and fewer low-quality matches for the viewers, both revitalizing a stale decade-old formula that had no relegation or promotion at stakes.
Rogue’s rebranding as KOI also proved to be a major viewership draw, with KOI’s legions of Spanish fans propelling the team’s matches to the top of the charts.
2022’s average for LEC was 270k, so even without playoffs the viewership has already comfortably surpassed last year’s.
