Although it took a bit longer than people anticipated, the first week of the 2023 LCS Summer Split has finally arrived. The 10 best League of Legends teams have collided again to kick off the new season, but unfortunately, it looks like fans are not tuning in as much as they used to in seasons past.
Over the last three days, the LCS has only hit a six-figure viewership mark once. During Team Liquid’s victory over 100 Thieves on June 15, the broadcast brought in 106 thousand viewers over 32 minutes, according to esports viewership aggregate Esports Charts.
While the final match of the week—a returning favorite in NRG Esports claiming its first win since 2016 over 100 Thieves—came close to the six-figure mark, it ultimately fell short with just over 93,000 tuning in to see the closing moments of the LCS Summer Split opening week.
With popular pros like CoreJJ, Doublelift, Ssumday, and Summit taking the stage, it’s understandable that this matchup would garner good traction, but it’s surprising to see high-profile matches with teams like FlyQuest and Cloud9 fail to crest six figures with the overall firepower of their rosters featuring other talented superstars.
Related: FlyQuest lose to another mid lane sub in disappointing 0-2 start to 2023 LCS Summer Split
As a whole, however, the first week of the season only had an average viewership of 64,707, which is worrying since last season, the LCS had already hit a 178 thousand peak in its opening weekend, and at least a few matches hit six-figure viewership on the first day alone. The league has also been dropping in viewership split-by-split, which has many fans worried about the future of the LCS, especially after the recent walkout that delayed the season by two weeks.
In comparison, the LEC was already hitting massive viewership numbers through day one last season, reaching a 348 thousand viewer peak during MAD Lions’ matchup vs. KOI. That first week also saw multiple other matches break the 200-thousand-viewer mark, mostly due to the popularity of teams like G2 Esports, Fnatic, and KOI.
Whether it’s the timing of the games being in the middle of the week or fans not even knowing that the LCS was starting, it’s clear that the league has plenty of issues that need to be ironed out in a period where doubt is at its highest for the region.
