Massive viewership of LoL Red Bull offseason match was fueled by loyal T1, KCorp fans

Although official League of Legends esports action is on pause until at least next month, fans were sated yesterday, Dec. 9, with an international showmatch between some of the most popular teams in Europe and the current best team in the world, T1. 

The event—titled Red Bull League of Its Own—was held in Berlin and saw the reigning world champions come into Europe and take on all comers, facing down a gauntlet of LEC and ERL teams. In the end, T1 nearly swept the entire board of EU assailants that were thrown at them, except for G2, who won a sloppy, kill-heavy game to close out the slate.  

T1 ended up playing five games on stage yesterday, and some fans on the LoL subreddit even hypothesized that the fatigue T1 experienced by playing such a packed schedule of matches played a major factor in G2’s ability to take a game off them at the end of the day. 

The event peaked with nearly half a million viewers, with the most-watched game of the day—T1 vs. Karmine Corp—pulling in 494,000 unique sets of eyes, according to Esports Charts. That mark was higher than every game played during the most recent LEC Summer Split and all but one match during this summer’s LEC Season Finals. The event’s average viewership mark sat just above 300,000 throughout its eight-and-a-half hours of runtime.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that T1 and Karmine Corp drew in the most viewers during their match, as those two teams have been widely regarded for their loyal fan bases and dedicated viewers. Even before KC was an official LEC team, the French fan-favorite had one of the most intense foundations. In 2021, a friendly between KCorp and KOI drew in over 400,000 viewers, as well, according to Esports Charts. At the time, both teams were still in ERL’s but still knew how to draw a crowd. Since that point, KCorp’s fan base has only grown, and with the reigning world champions coming to town, it’s obvious why yesterday’s slate of games did so well. 

League fans have proven time and again that they will always watch the esport, especially when teams from different regions square off. Last decade, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) events were a staple of the offseason, especially in the month of December, when League events were few and far between. With how well the event performed, independent organizers (like Red Bull) could be incentivized in the future to book big-name teams from around the world for League events.