LEC may have already found key to success after stunning viewership numbers in opening week

The League of Legends Summer Split has just begun in the EMEA region, with ten competing teams kicking off the tournament on June 17. As the Mid Season Invitation put a break on regional tournaments around the world, LEC fans waited almost two months for the competition to resume. They were eager for some action and viewership figures prove it. 

On its first three days, the LEC Summer Split reached 343,576 peak viewers combined across all live streams, according to Esports Chart, slightly lower than Spring which had seen 5,000 more people watching in its peak match. Just taking into consideration the viewership during the first week of this season’s splits, the numbers have been declining since the beginning of the year, with the Winter Split still holding the highest maximum number of viewers for its first week at 467,000 viewers.

Still, the first three days of the LEC Summer Split have attracted more than triple the viewers that the North American league did. Following weeks of turmoil around its future, the LCS first Summer week peaked at only 106,000 viewers, a number already in decline if compared to the region’s previous split. 

While the overall viewership numbers are decreasing across regions, one addition to the LEC broadcast led to a copious comeback of viewers. Since the beginning of the 2023 season, the LEC has implemented teams’ co-stream, which gave the opportunity to KOI, Heretics, and starting this Summer, Astralis too, to stream the competition on their channels. While all streams appear to be successful as fans flock to support their favorite teams on their channels, KOI’s stream has been reaching numbers that almost match the ones of the official broadcast.  

Incidentally, since the beginning of the year, KOI’s matches have been recording the highest number of viewers during the first week of the competition. A big part of KOI’s success has to be attributed to its owner and streamer, Ibai, who is a household name on Twitch and brings the LEC matches to the general public.