![\"First](\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot-large.jpg\")
League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament<\/strong>, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
According to esports data platform Esports Charts<\/a>, the event recorded 509,029 average viewers and 18m watch hours throughout its 35-hour air time.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
- \n
- Most popular esports games in 2025 so far<\/a><\/li>\n
- “My teammates are playing quite well”: Peanut aids Hanwha Life Esports through First Stand with ex-rivals<\/a><\/li>\n
- League of Legends First Stand opening match shows promising viewership<\/a><\/li>\n <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n \n
First Stand<\/a> is a newly-introduced international tournament that invites the winning team of the first Split in every League of Legends (LoL) region. Its inaugural edition featured Team Liquid<\/strong> (LTA Cross-Conference), Karmine Corp<\/strong> (LEC Winter), Hanwha Life Esports<\/strong> (LCK Cup), Top Esports<\/strong> (LPL Split 1) and CTBC Flying Oyster<\/strong> (LCP Split 1).<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nFrom March 10th-16th, the five opponents battled through a Round-Robin Group Stage and a Knockout Stage for a share of the $1m prize pool (~\u00a3771,000).<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nAlthough First Stand\u2019s opening match between Karming Corp and Team Liquid showed promising viewership with over 700,000 peak viewers, the tournament continued with inconsistent audience numbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nThe event\u2019s host location at Seoul\u2019s LoL Park made it inconvenient for European fans to watch certain matches due to the significant timezone difference. Moreover, taking place so early in the season, First Stand may appear insignificant to some viewers.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nFirst Stand\u2019s Surprising Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nDespite such concerns, the Grand Finals between French organisation Karmine Corp (KC) and First Stand winner Hanwha Life Esports surpassed 1m peak viewers, making it the second most-watched LoL competition in 2025 so far. Only South Korea\u2019s LCK Cup<\/a> was more popular, with 1.91m peak viewers.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nFirst Stand was also co-streamed<\/a> by several notable esports personalities, including Marc \u2018Caedrel\u2019 Lamont, Christian \u2018IWDominate\u2019 Rivera and KC co-owner Kamel \u2018Kameto\u2019 Kebir.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nSouth Korea has been a dominating region within the ongoing LoL season beyond Hanwha\u2019s performance at First Stand. Korean esports organisations Hanwha, T1 and Gen.G Esports currently lead the game\u2019s global power rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n
\n \nWith First Stand concluded, all regions return for their second Splits ahead of the LoL calendar\u2019s second international tournament, the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). Kicking off on June 27th, MSI awards its winner with a direct qualification to the 2025 World Championship.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Image Credit: Riot Games League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers. According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the event recorded 509,029 average viewers and 18m watch hours throughout its 35-hour air time. First Stand is a newly-introduced international tournament that … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":170431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","esi_template":"default","excluded":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,55,106,58,8702,18248],"tags":[19742,3738],"class_list":["post-170391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events-calendar-news","category-esports-titles","category-latest-news","category-lol","category-moba","category-top-stories","tag-first-stand","tag-hanwha-life-esports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esports Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-17T15:06:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-17T15:06:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lea Maas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@esportsinsider\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@esportsinsider\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lea Maas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lea Maas\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7716ba52f330cd6d969139be393364d0\"},\"headline\":\"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-17T15:06:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-17T15:06:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"First Stand\",\"Hanwha Life Esports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Events\",\"Games\",\"Latest News\",\"League of Legends\",\"MOBA\",\"Top Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\",\"name\":\"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-17T15:06:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-17T15:06:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Image Credit: Riot Games\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/\",\"name\":\"Esports Insider\",\"description\":\"Definitive source for everything esports business\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Esports Insider\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Esports Insider\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/esportsinsider\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7716ba52f330cd6d969139be393364d0\",\"name\":\"Lea Maas\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lea_esi.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lea_esi.png\",\"caption\":\"Lea Maas\"},\"description\":\"Lea is a business student with too many interests and too little time. Covering esports stories for more than 2 years, she is deeply invested in DEI matters, promoting mental health awareness and everything VALORANT.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/leamaas\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/author\/leaesportsinsider-com\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations","description":"League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations","og_description":"League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.","og_url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership","og_site_name":"Esports Insider","article_published_time":"2025-03-17T15:06:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-17T15:06:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lea Maas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@esportsinsider","twitter_site":"@esportsinsider","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lea Maas","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership"},"author":{"name":"Lea Maas","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7716ba52f330cd6d969139be393364d0"},"headline":"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations","datePublished":"2025-03-17T15:06:46+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-17T15:06:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership"},"wordCount":347,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg","keywords":["First Stand","Hanwha Life Esports"],"articleSection":["Events","Games","Latest News","League of Legends","MOBA","Top Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership","name":"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg","datePublished":"2025-03-17T15:06:46+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-17T15:06:51+00:00","description":"League of Legends\u2019 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game\u2019s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/first-stand-riot.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"Image Credit: Riot Games"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/2025\/03\/first-stand-2025-lol-viewership#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/","name":"Esports Insider","description":"Definitive source for everything esports business","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#organization","name":"Esports Insider","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/esi_logo_white.jpg","width":900,"height":900,"caption":"Esports Insider"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/esportsinsider"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7716ba52f330cd6d969139be393364d0","name":"Lea Maas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lea_esi.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/lea_esi.png","caption":"Lea Maas"},"description":"Lea is a business student with too many interests and too little time. Covering esports stories for more than 2 years, she is deeply invested in DEI matters, promoting mental health awareness and everything VALORANT.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/leamaas\/"],"url":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/author\/leaesportsinsider-com"}]}},"modified_by":"Olivia Richman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170433,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170391\/revisions\/170433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esportsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}