LoL viewership has always been a vital element in determining its success. Let’s see how the numbers are in 2024.
Image Credits | Riot Games
The League of Legends competitive 2024 season is well underway, with all teams competing in their respective domestic leagues. After a successful end to the 2023 year, which saw record-breaking numbers at Worlds, LoL esports hopes to ride that wave of enthusiasm in the new season, despite the economic downturn affecting the industry as a whole.
Let’s take a look at the numbers, categorized by each region, and then make a general overview later. Unfortunately, there aren’t viewership stats for the LPL so far, so we won’t be able to analyze the Chinese region for the time being.
Let’s start with the LEC, which is the only region with three splits. Last year, average viewership had remained more or less stable but we were able to see higher peaks across specific matches. This year, we have already started seeing much higher numbers, thanks to the introduction of Karmine Corp, as well as the addition of co-streamers for the European matches.
The LEC Spring saw much lower numbers compared to the start of the winter split, especially when it comes to peak viewership. The most watched match was the final between FNC and G2, recording a total of 593,554. The numbers are much lower compared to Winter Split, which had at least 5 games with over 600k peak viewers. That said, average viewership stayed relatively stable: 265,478. This further shows how the overall interest for the league is present.
Even though the LCS lost two teams and is now an 8-team league, the team benefitted a lot with the return to the weekend schedule. This change greatly improved the viewership numbers, as the finals registered 246,184 viewers. Average viewership has been well above last year’s numbers: 120,686 so far, a lot closer to 2022’s numbers (123,411).
The LCS has been trying to regain fans’ interest by making teams play on live patches, and finding a way to incentivize viewers to tune in. We’ll see whether this will work in the long term.
Image Credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
The LCK continues to be the most successful league in the world, with the highest peak and average numbers globally. While our stats don’t take into account the Chinese fan base, there are quite a lot of people from China who consistently watch the Korean league.
In terms of Western viewership, the LCK has broken the records once again this year, achieving its highest peak viewership in the finals match between Gen.G and T1. A total of 2,656,938 fans tuned in simultaneously, shattering the previous record of 1,467,849 achieved in the previous year. The average viewership was 355,019, marking a major difference between top teams and bottom-tier teams in the league.
Image Credit: League of Legends Champions Korea Flickr
The global esports landscape saw a great surge in numbers and growth in the last few years. While some of the numbers were partially inflated by the global pandemic, 2023 and 2024 are proving that esports is becoming more and more mainstream. Western fans are tuning in more and more to live matches, and there is constant interest across all regions. Even the LCS, which struggled last season, is gaining some of its viewers thanks to the new schedule. Given the higher stake matches across the world and the new season changes, we might see more records being broken this year, just like it happened in the LCK Spring playoffs.
LOL
CS2
Dota 2
Valorant
Fortnite
Call of Duty
Mobile Games
Gaming
EN Global 
JP 日本語