CBLOL’s viewership in Spring 2023 surpasses LCS

As the most viewership statistics of the recent Spring Split indicate, CBLOL, the Brazilian League of Legends league, continues its rise in popularity. The league has now even surpassed the numbers of the LCS in both concurrent and average viewership. 

LCS viewership has been steadily declining for a number of years now. The President of Esports at Riot Games John Needham has admitted that the league’s engagement has waned following the recent switch to midweek play days.

CBLOL rises in popularity

It’s really surprising that during Spring 2023, the CBLOL has reached more average and peak viewers than the LCS. According to statistics provided by Esports Charts, the Brazilian league peaked at 276,078 concurrent viewers, while its average viewership reached over 111,000 spectators.

In contrast, the LCS saw an average viewership of 109,759 viewers throughout this time, while peaking at 271,376 concurrent spectators. Although the CBLOL hasn’t outperformed the North American league that much, it has still overtaken the LCS.

This rise in viewership has been likely caused by the attendance of some of the most popular Brazilian esports organizations that have made it to the CBLOL Spring Split playoffs.

LCS Spring Final viewership was never so low

Throughout the Spring Split playoffs, the CBLOL recorded four series with over 200,000 spectators, all of which featured either LOUD or Los Grandes. Meanwhile, the LCS recorded only two.

Furthermore, this Spring marked the lowest grand final viewership in the LCS history, with the Spring 2023 Grand Final between Golden Guardians and Cloud9, being the split’s most-watched match.

The Spring Split as a whole had a total of 14.8 million viewer hours, down 22 percent from the 19 million viewer hours of LCS Summer 2022, which saw the near-worst viewership ever.

One of the biggest issues with this split was that popular teams like 100 Thieves, Team Liquid, and TSM all struggled (of those three teams, only 100 Thieves made the playoffs). At the same time, the LCS finals took place over the Easter weekend, which many felt impacted viewership.

The problems of the LCS

Ahead of the Spring Split, one of the biggest talking points was the change of game days from Saturday and Sunday to Thursday and Friday. The impact of this decision ended up being less than many predicted: the average viewership has fallen by less than 6,000 compared to the summer of 2022.

The LCS has other worries at the moment, with some teams in the league struggling financially (CLG, TSM). After some very successful years, the esports industry suddenly experienced its first economic winter last year. But Doublelift has previously addressed the problems of the LCS, claiming that the salaries are also far too high. To prevent this, the Korean LCK plans to introduce a salary cap.

By the way, Riot is currently planning to raise the rule that only two players from another competitive region can be imported into the LCS teams to three.

Header: Riot Games