LEC Finals crush LCS with 4 times more peak viewers at 735K

The LEC Versus 2026 viewership peaked during the grand final, where lifted their 18th European trophy against in a breathtaking best-of-five series. The series shattered viewership records, hitting a peak of 734,933 according to EsportsCharts, fueled by Karmine Corp's fanbase, which mobilized just like in Winter 2025 to watch their team challenge Europe's titans for a continental title.

This number, as usual in recent years, obliterates the LCS viewership peak. The Lock-In final, played the same day with LYON defeating Cloud9, only reached 184,969 peak viewers. In other words, the LEC peak is nearly four times larger than the LCS this year. It was the same story last year.

For the LEC, this marks a return to higher peaks. Last year in 2025, the peak hit 801,369 thanks to Karmine Corp's historic 3-0 first-ever LEC final win over G2. The year before, in 2024, it was still much higher at 830,816 viewers during G2's final victory against MAD Lions KOI (formerly Movistar KOI).

But this final remains an outlier. Despite the 735K peak, no other match exceeded 592K beforehand. Looking at the split's top five most-watched matches, the final is the only playoff series—and thus the only non-BO1.

This echoes Winter 2024, Karmine Corp's LEC debut year, when regular season BO1s surged in viewership. This year, fanbases again boosted regular season numbers, with Los Ratones claiming two other podium spots: their BO1 win over G2 and their decisive match against Team Vitality.

And overall, without even focusing on which teams are involved, simply looking at the top five matches from each of the last three years is enough to see the slow, general decline in LEC viewership.

In short, the LEC shows a slight slowdown again despite an innovative, engaging format hinting at an open league where top ERL teams challenge European giants. It's another small wake-up call for Riot Games, as they can't always rely on powerhouse finals like Winter's to guarantee viewership.