The playoffs of LTA Season one concluded on Feb. 23 with Team Liquid hoisting the trophy. However, the viewership for the grand final was surprisingly low, raising concerns for the future of the new League of Legends competition.
The grand final peaked at only 168,852 online viewers, according to Esports Charts. More surprisingly, it wasn’t even the most popular series of the whole event. That title belongs to the clash between Cloud9 and LOUD in the quarterfinals, which amassed 291,301 viewers. Still, such low viewership numbers are worrying, and fans agree.
“Bring back LCS. Riot, just admit you guys messed up, cut the excuses, stop trying to play off these changes as a success to impress investors because they will see through your bullshit eventually,” one fan wrote on Reddit on Feb. 23. “If this league is still around in a year or two, I’ll be shocked. I don’t know what the costs are to host LCS weekly is, but there is ZERO chance that it is self-sufficient at this viewership,” another added.
The viewership peak was horrible compared to the last year’s respective results. In 2024, the Americas’ region was still divided, with the LCS and CBLOL being two different competitions. So far, that setup seems healthier for both leagues viewership-wise.
The 2024 LCS Spring Split peaked at 246,184 viewers during the grand final between Liquid and FlyQuest, according to Esports Charts. CBLOL had an even higher ceiling in the first split of the year, reaching 459,846 viewers during the grand final series between paiN Gaming and LOUD. A few other CBLOL matches that split also surpassed LCS Spring’s peak.
The LTA was introduced this year to unify the Americas region, and hopefully bring higher viewership. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case. LTA North hit a peak of 148,603, while the Southern region reached a 254,464 peak, according to Esports Charts.
Both these results were overtaken by every cross-continental clash during the quarterfinals in playoffs, except the FlyQuest and Leviathan’s series, which peaked at only 218,034. Other series had between 260,000 and 291,000 fans tuning live, proving that intercontinental games and South American teams bring viewership results. However, by putting the Northern teams against Southern in the quarterfinals in a single-elimination playoffs format, Riot is clipping the league’s wings. Popular personas like Caedrel had already raised a handful of concerns against the format.
On the other hand, other League competitions like the LCK peaked at 1,432,474 viewers during its final, and 1,907,634 for the overall first split of the year. Fans are still excited about competitive play if they have engaging event to follow—but it’s up to Riot and the LTA to provide that.
Published: Feb 24, 2025 11:49 am