G2 Esports vs. MAD Lions on stage in LEC.

Photo by Michał Konkol via Riot Games

League EMEA boss hits back at ‘terrible takes’ on LEC’s 2023 viewership

Pundits just got silenced.

Mateusz Miter

Published: Feb 27, 2023 03:52 am

After the conclusion of the 2023 LEC Winter Split, Maximilian Peter Schmidt, League of Legends esports director for EMEA, addressed some “terrible takes” on the viewership stats from the tournament.

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On Feb. 26, Schmidt explained on Twitter which stats actually matter for Riot Games and that LEC is doing fine overall if you take these important stats into consideration. He also pointed out that you need to compare this year’s data to pre-pandemic stats “if you want the analysis to have meaning.”

As I see a lot of really terrible takes on viewership stats, here a simple guide:

1) PCU is close to irrelevant.

2) AMA & HW pay the bills.

3) Compare data to pre-pandemic levels if you want the analysis to have meaning.

The #LEC is up ~40% in AMA compared to Spring 2019.
— Maximilian Peter Schmidt (@RiotMAXtheX) February 26, 2023

The LoL Esports director for the EMEA region put it straight—two stats “pay the bills,” and they are AMA (average minute audience) and HW (hours watched). Schmidt compared LEC’s AMA in the 2023 Winter Split to the 2019 Spring Split and shared that it is up by around 40 percent.

LEC is also up in other aspects, but it “hardly matters.” Schmidt added that the competition is up around 20 percent in PCU (peak concurrent viewers) compared to pre-pandemic levels.

“What matters though is that we are about on par in Hours Watched between Spring 2019 & Winter 2023. And we still have a whole Split to go before MSI,” Schmidt wrote.

Yet, it’s too early to celebrate. The Director didn’t shy away from the fact that the 2023 LEC Spring Split will be pivotal in determining if the new format is a success, and if so, by how much. Summer Split and Season Finals should also do much better than the old format. Fans should expect some actual data from Riot on this later this year.

The 2023 LEC Winter Split accumulated 26,433,880 hours watched, according to Esports Charts. On the other hand, the 2022 LEC Spring Split boasted 36,505,888. So the upcoming Spring Split needs just 10 million hours watched to catch up with last year’s edition.

The 2023 LEC Winter Split finished on Feb. 26 with G2 Esports’ 3-0 victory in the grand final. The 2023 LEC Spring Split begins on March 11.

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Author

Mateusz Miter

Freelance Writer at Dot Esports. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.