- This year’s Spring Split ended with MAD Lion’s hard-fought victory
- Despite that, the 2023 tournament saw a 20% decrease in peak viewership numbers
- Many fans think they have figured out why there is such a discrepancy from last year
LEC 2023 has been suffering a significant drop in viewership numbers, and according to many fans, this is due to the finalists not being as popular as other well-known ex-champions.
LEC Spring Finals See Significant Viewership Drop
The 2023 LEC Spring concluded with MAD Lions’ unexpected reverse sweep of Team BDS in the best-of-five finals on Sunday, April 23. This victory marks MAD’s third LEC victory, after securing back-to-back titles in 2021. The team was looking for a way to reclaim the trophy, and did so in style, snatching it away from their opponents in what became one of the most interesting matches of this year’s LEC Spring series.
Despite the outstanding performance shown by both teams and the enthralling storytelling that emerged from their clash, the playoffs’ viewership was not as high as expected. Naturally, fans started wondering why the event did not attract as many viewers and it seems some have found the reason behind this.
For comparison, the 2023 LEC Spring Split recorded 572 391 peak viewers, according to stats tracking platform Esports Charts. This is a more than 20% drop from the viewership of last year’s LEC Spring split, which recorded 723 061 peak viewers during its grand final, data again thanks to Esports Charts. The average viewership of the 2023 LEC Spring Playoffs also dropped by an even larger percentage, falling from about 270 000 last year, to around 219 000 in 2023. This indicates that not only is the LEC 2023 less popular but viewers are retained for much less time.
Why Is This the Case?
When faced with such a high loss of viewers, many fans wondered why this year’s LEC performed so badly in terms of airing stats. A few fans discussed the matter in a post on the League subreddit, with the most common reason for the disparity in viewership being cited as the popularity of the two teams or the fact that they are not that popular.
Many fans said that despite both MAD Lions and Team BDS performing well, they simply did not attract many viewers, as their respective fanbases are not as big as some of the more well-known LEC teams. “They [BDS] played really well, but are probably one of the worst teams in terms of drawing in viewership,” one commenter wrote. “MAD Lions is probably mildly popular but BDS isn’t/wasn’t. This is just an absolute W,” another comment reads.
What’s worse is that last year saw G2, one of the most popular LEC teams compete and draw in the crowds, so MAD and BDS had an even tougher challenge to answer to. This year, the second, third, and fourth most-watched games also had G2 as the main stars, with other popular teams being Fnatic and KOI.
The significant drop in viewers might also be a symptom of the problems that the LEC has been facing this year. The LEC Winter Split also saw a significant drop in viewership, with fans and pros alike blaming the series’ new format and inconvenient streaming times as the main reason for this. Perhaps seeing this, the organizers of the 2023 LEC Summer Split might change the broadcast times to make it easier for more fans to tune in to the games.
