League of Legends’ LEC Winter 2024 split has recorded a substantial increase in viewership, becoming the fourth most-viewed LEC event in history.
The split saw a total of 830,000 peak viewers, just around a thousand viewers less than LEC Spring 2021, and more than 150,000 more than the LEC Finals 2023, according to esports data company Esports Charts.
A surprisingly high number of viewers makes the Winter 2024 Split the first one to break 800,000 viewers since the LEC Summer 2021. The event had 337,000 average viewers and around 30.7m hours watched on 91 hours of air time. For comparison, the 2023 Winter split had around 555,000 peak viewers and 271,000 average viewers. The 2024 tournament also scored record numbers during its opening week.
The major improvement in numbers comes in no small part from co-streaming, especially the Twitch channels of Spanish streamer Ibai, one of the Co-Owners of esports organisation KOI, and former LEC caster Caedrel. The good viewership figure was also boosted by the fact that MAD Lions KOI, a team with a substantial following, reached the finals of the tournament.
As a result, Spanish-language platforms in total recorded a higher peak viewership than English-speaking broadcasts, garnering figures of 348,027 and 318,345, respectively.
Interestingly, the main broadcast for the event crashed during the final match of the series, but co-streams were not affected by the issue. This issue did create some community backlash towards the game’s publisher Riot Games, a company that recently laid off more than 500 of its staff, many of whom were a part of the LEC production team.
The Winter Split of the LEC was first introduced in 2023 as a third official split in the LEC season, enabling the fans to watch a total of four finals between EMEA teams per year (Winter, Spring, Summer, and the LEC Finals). The Winter 2024 split was won by G2 Esports, with the final being the most-watched match of the tournament. MAD Lions KOI were the most-watched team, attracting around 11.6m viewers to their games.
In terms of average viewers throughout LEC Winter 2024, the most popular team was French esports organisation Karmine Corp, generating an average of 437,170 viewers for its match-ups.
