LoL - LEC: Spring Split peak viewership down 14% compared to last year

The LEC Spring 2025 has come to a close, and the numbers are in. While Riot Games introduced another reworked format this year, it wasn’t enough to spark a significant rise in viewership. In fact, across multiple metrics, Spring 2025 fell short of its predecessor, despite packed offline events, a narrative-rich Playoffs bracket, and great runs from teams with some of Europe’s strongest fan bases like Karmine Corp and Movistar KOI.

This year’s Spring Split followed a new structure: seven weeks of regular-season BO3s involving all ten teams, followed by a three-week Playoffs bracket featuring the top six. Compared to 2024’s format — a quick three-week BO1 sprint followed by a longer Playoffs — this version resulted in more airtime and longer matches overall, according to esportscharts.com.

Yet this structural shift didn’t translate into stronger viewership. Quite the opposite:

Interestingly, the single most viewed match this year — the final between Movistar KOI and G2 Esports — had all the ingredients for a massive turnout: a marquee showdown between a huge fanbase and the emperor of the league, an epic storyline. Yet it failed to match the sheer draw of 2024’s “classico” between G2 Esports and Fnatic. And this year’s Spring doesn’t just pale in comparison to last year’s: it also struggled against Winter 2025. Spring's peak viewership was 36.5% lower than Winter's — a sharper drop than the 28.6% difference observed in 2024.

First, the format. BO3 matches are long. To follow your team each week means investing two to three hours — far more than the quick-hit BO1s of previous years. That likely played a role in fatigue or irregular viewership, especially during the early weeks of the regular season. Second, the stakes. Spring remains the least compelling of the three splits. Sandwiched between Winter's excitement of roster debuts and Summer's road to Worlds, it offers little novelty or resolution. Qualification for MSI — its main prize — rarely fires up much fan engagement.

Third, context. Karmine Corp, arguably the biggest interest in Europe, was a different team this Spring. Unlike Winter, where their return and first LEC title were major plot points, they came into Spring as defending champions, already a known force. Their regular season matches didn’t spark the same curiosity or urgency, and only their playoff clashes, especially against Movistar KOI and G2, reached the upper tier of viewership.

And finally, despite staging eight offline BO3s, including ones in Madrid and at KC’s home arena, only one made it into the top five peak viewership matches. The atmosphere was electric, the production stellar, but the numbers didn’t follow as hard as one could expect.

Riot’s new format brought more games, more airtime, and more storytelling opportunities — but managed to capture less sustained viewer attention. As we head into a similarly reformatted Summer Split, the question remains: can Riot rekindle a spark before Worlds as they usually do?