This weekend the finals of four of the League of Legends' five major leagues have took place: the EU LCS (European League), NA LCS (North American League), LCK (South Korean League) and LMS (Taiwanese league). With the final of the Chinese league yet to be disputed and taking advantage of the large number of major matches that have concentrated in a few days, eSports Charts has presented in detail the viewership data for each of the regional finals.
According to the group of analysts, the final has gathered the most audience — by a great margin — has been the derby of the Korean league in which the world champions SK Telecom T1 faced the super team of kt Rolster.
LCK: 8.7 million concurrent viewers
Not surprisingly, this was the most watched game of the weekend. It is accepted throughout the entire world that the LCK is the most prestigious League of Legends league and no lover of the competitive scene would want to miss the match.
The rivalry between these two squads goes back to the era of StarCraft and exists beyond esports. Both clubs fight in the Korean leagues of handball and basketball, and it could be assumed that the match would arouse great interest among the local fans. However, the Korean audience have been nothing more than a small fraction of the total audience, with 83,000 concurrent spectators at the highest peaks.
Chart of concurrent spectators of the LCK finals @eSportsCharts
The vast majority of the audience would come from China, sometimes reaching 95% of the total audience of the final. 8,240,000 Chinese would tune in simultaneously the encounter at the highest audience peaks of the retransmission. This is mainly because not only China has a large esport fanbase, but many of the players who participated in the final returned from competing in the LPL in the previous seasons. China is also the country with the largest population in the world, so it is natural to see such exorbitant numbers.
eSports Charts also emphasizes, as expected, that this has been the most viewed game of the season in the LCK.
Europe, North America and Taiwan
Regarding the three other major competitive regions that have also disputed their respective finals this weekend, the North American final held in the Canadian city of Vancouver between Cloud9 and Team SoloMid would be the most viewed, with more than 700,000 concurrent spectators in the fifth match of the series. This series would also be the most viewed of the whole season among the western fans.
Chart of concurrent spectators of the NA LCS playoffs @eSportsCharts
On the other hand, EU LCS finals between Unicorns of Love and G2 Esports would accumulate up to 400,000 viewers in the maximum peak of audience. A number that has been going down since the 2015 summer finals that faced Origen against Fnatic where it was reached 900,000 concurrent spectators.
Chart of concurrent spectators of the EU LCS playoffs @eSportsCharts
Once again, it is reaffirmed that the league that most interest generates among the western fans is the NA LCS and that the audiences of the maximum European competition have been descending in last seasons.
Finally, the final with the least number of spectators was the one that faced Flash Wolves against ahq eSports Club in the LMS. The game has brought together few fans from the international community. However, it has been the one that has raised the most interest among the local fans. At least 120,000 Taiwanese viewers would be in front of the screen at peak times according to eSports Charts.
