After the conclusion of the 2023 LEC Winter Split, Maximilian Peter Schmidt, League of Legends esports director for EMEA, addressed some “terrible takes” on the viewership stats from the tournament.
On Feb. 26, Schmidt explained on Twitter which stats actually matter for Riot Games and that LEC is doing fine overall if you take these important stats into consideration. He also pointed out that you need to compare this year’s data to pre-pandemic stats “if you want the analysis to have meaning.”
The LoL Esports director for the EMEA region put it straight—two stats “pay the bills,” and they are AMA (average minute audience) and HW (hours watched). Schmidt compared LEC’s AMA in the 2023 Winter Split to the 2019 Spring Split and shared that it is up by around 40 percent.
LEC is also up in other aspects, but it “hardly matters.” Schmidt added that the competition is up around 20 percent in PCU (peak concurrent viewers) compared to pre-pandemic levels.
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“What matters though is that we are about on par in Hours Watched between Spring 2019 & Winter 2023. And we still have a whole Split to go before MSI,” Schmidt wrote.
Yet, it’s too early to celebrate. The Director didn’t shy away from the fact that the 2023 LEC Spring Split will be pivotal in determining if the new format is a success, and if so, by how much. Summer Split and Season Finals should also do much better than the old format. Fans should expect some actual data from Riot on this later this year.
The 2023 LEC Winter Split accumulated 26,433,880 hours watched, according to Esports Charts. On the other hand, the 2022 LEC Spring Split boasted 36,505,888. So the upcoming Spring Split needs just 10 million hours watched to catch up with last year’s edition.
Related: Here’s everything G2 Esports just clinched by winning the 2023 LEC Winter Split
The 2023 LEC Winter Split finished on Feb. 26 with G2 Esports’ 3-0 victory in the grand final. The 2023 LEC Spring Split begins on March 11.
