T1, Gen.G show power of Korean audience in LoL esports

The League of Legends Champions Korea or LCK Spring 2024 showed the power and dominance of the Korean region in League of Legends as the grand final reached 2.66 million peak viewers.

Data from global esports statistics provider Esports Charts show that this record beat the previous summer split’s viewership numbers of 1.53 million peak viewers, proof that the Korean passion and demographics are very much alive in the game.

“The LCK Spring was the most popular iteration of the regional circuit ever. Not only did it reach extremely high concurrent viewership, it also held a strong average viewership throughout its entire duration. The split was broadcast for over 276 hours, and throughout these hours it garnered a total of 98.16M Hours Watched,” Esports Charts said in its report.

This is the most popular LCK match ever, as well as the highest Korean-language peak viewership in esports history outside of the League of Legends Worlds events, which is considered to be the Super Bowl for League of Legends.

Esports Charts also noted that very few esports tournaments have ever reached the 100 million hours watched mark. 

“The recent editions of the League of Legends World Championship have managed it, along with The International 10 in Dota 2. The LCK Spring 2024 could have been the first regional circuit in League of Legends to reach 9 figures of Hours Watched, but it fell slightly short. Regardless, it remains the most-watched League of Legends tournament ever outside the Worlds events,” Esports Charts also noted, citing high average viewership and long broadcast times as two key factors.

The 2.66M peak concurrent viewers that tuned into the Grand Finals of this split made League of Legends history. The match was not only the most popular LCK match ever, it also was the highest Korean-language peak viewership achieved in the entire esports industry, outside of the Worlds events for League of Legends.

The match was also the most popular League of Legends match which took place outside the Worlds events. The yearly Mid-Season Invitational tournament has breached 2M PV in the past two years, but the LCK managed to gather considerably more peak viewers. As it stands, the LCK regional league is more popular than the year’s second-most-important international tournament for League of Legends.

Esports Charts also saw that T1 and Gen.G are the teams that drive the league to good ratings and viewership.

Aside from their 2.6 million viewers in the LCK Spring 2024 Grand Finals, the two teams have been churning out highly-rated matches in the last year.

Their MSI 2023 Bracket Round 2 match garnered over 1.9 million views, while their Worlds 2023 Swiss Stage Day 2 match got over 1.84 million peak viewers.

At fourth place is their LCK Summer 2023 Grand Final, which peaked at 1.528 million viewers, while their LCK Spring 2023 Grand Final peaked at 1.467 million viewers.

“At both last year’s Worlds and MSI events, Gen.G and T1 met relatively early in the event. Although their match during the earlier stages of these events garnered significant viewership, both teams only met once at each event. If these two were able to face off against one another during the Playoffs stage of a major international event, they would surely have reached over 2M concurrent viewers,” Esports Charts noted.

The esports statistics provider also concludes that the future of the LCK – and Korean LoL in general – is in the hands of the two teams.

“The future of Korean League of Legends is in the hands of T1 and Gen.G. The two teams are consistently driving viewership to new heights in their regional circuit, and if they can both meet in the playoffs of this year’s MSI or Worlds, they might be able to set another viewership record for Korean audiences. The LCK also continues to grow year after year, still with that elusive 100M HW mark to chase,” Esports Charts noted.

More esports statistics can be found via the Esports Charts website at escharts.com.