Doublelift’s return to pro play was what LCS fans watched the most on day 1 of 2023 Spring Split

The first day of the 2023 LCS Spring Split is over, and the viewer statistics for the day are also out.

The most-watched match during the first day of competition was a clash between two juggernauts in the league, Cloud9 and 100 Thieves. Both squads gathered 178,784 peak viewers, according to Esports Charts.

Two other matches attracted more than 150,000 viewers, with Liquid and FlyQuest’s clash reaching a peak of 167,958, and Golden Guardians versus Evil Geniuses claiming 163,586. TSM and Immortals’ game ranks the lowest in terms of popularity with 112,120 viewers, though its timeslot was in the middle of the night for Europeans, who most likely gave up watching the show by that time.

The fact that 100T and C9 attracted the most viewers is hardly surprising since the former brought in two popular veterans of the scene, Bjergsen and Doublelift. The latter came out of retirement this season.

Yesterday’s results certainly didn’t break last year’s first-week records. The number of peak viewers during the 2022 LCS Spring Split reached 243,217 people, according to Esports Charts.

Many people feared for the results of the LCS this year due to the new format changes, which saw the competition play out on Thursday and Friday, instead of weekends, like in the past years. So far, though, it’s tough to judge since the second day of games is scheduled for today.

The 2023 LCS Spring Split returns today at 3pm CT, with CLG taking on EG.