SuperLiga becomes most popular League of Legends league in EMEA in the summer of 2023

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In mid-August, the last matches of the national leagues for League of Legends, which are part of the EMEA Masters division, came to an end. The Spanish SuperLiga Summer 2023 surpassed other leagues in terms of Peak Viewers, while the French LFL Summer 2023 was the best in terms of total Hours Watched and Average Viewers during broadcasts.

In total, the EMEA Masters division includes 13 national and regional leagues from Europe and the Middle East. In addition to the Spanish and French leagues, there are separate leagues for the United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, a unified league for the Balkans, and so on. These leagues vary in popularity, with some attracting over a hundred thousand viewers, while others have ten times fewer viewers. At the end of the season, the top representatives from these leagues compete in the EMEA Masters, which is a sort of European championship and the largest tournament available to participants from national leagues.

SuperLiga Summer 2023

  SuperLiga Summer 2023 Viewership Statistics   

The Spanish SuperLiga Summer 2023 is one of the most popular leagues in the EMEA Masters division. It regularly attracts a large number of viewers thanks to the participation of prominent clubs. The SuperLiga features academy teams KOI, Team Heretics, and Fnatic, whose main rosters compete in the LEC. Among the participants of the SuperLiga is also Rebels Gaming, owned by Spanish footballer David de Gea. The esports team of FC Barcelona also competes here.

This summer, SuperLiga Summer 2023 matches accumulated 3.8 million Hours Watched. The Average Viewers number during the broadcasts was 28.6K, with the Peak Viewers number reaching 160.8K. The list of the most popular matches included only games involving KOI Academy. This same team became the most popular in the season in terms of total Hours Watched and Average Viewers, far surpassing all other participants.

The community casting by Ibai, a top Spanish streamer and co-owner of KOI, played an important role in the popularity of KOI.A and SuperLiga Summer 2023 in particular. He surpassed the official channel of the LVPes league in terms of Average and Peak viewers, even though he only covered matches of his own team. In comparison, the Grand Final of the league (where KOI.A did not participate) gathered only 30.8K PV. Even the least popular match of KOI.A had twice as many viewers.

LFL Summer 2023

  LFL Summer 2023 Viewership Statistics   

In the French LFL Summer 2023, the situation is similar to the Spanish league. Some academy rosters of LEC participants, such as Vitality.Bee and Team BDS Academy, also play there. However, in terms of media presence, the main asset of the league is Karmine Corp — a French club with a very dedicated and active fan base, backed by popular streamer Kamet0, who is also a co-owner of the organization. Thanks to his community casting, the league attracts a lion's share of its audience.

The LFL Summer 2023 matches accumulated just over 5 million HW — the best result among all other leagues in the EMEA Masters division. The French teams also became leaders by Average Viewers — 37.9K. And in terms of Peak Viewers, they took second place — 149.1K people.

The list of the most popular matches only included games involving Karmine Corp. This same team showed undisputed dominance in the Top of the participants of the league, far surpassing its competitors in terms of Hours Watched and Average Viewers. 

The influence of Kamet0 on LFL metrics is approximately the same as the influence of Ibai in SuperLiga. The only difference between them this season was that Karmine Corp made it to EMEA Masters, while KOI Academy fell short of the quota.

Prime League Summer 2023

  Prime League Summer 2023 Viewership Statistics  

The Prime League Summer 2023 has become the third-most popular national league in the EMEA Masters. This league features teams from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Teams like SK Gaming Prime, Unicorns of Love SE, BIG, MOUZ, FC Schalke 04, and others are among the participants. 

The league matches accumulated 1.2 million HW and drew 9.5K AV with 38.3K PV. While the Prime League Summer 2023 falls behind the audience coverage of the top leaders, it still showcases an interesting effect from community casting. The most popular match of the season was between Eintracht Spandau and NNO Prime, both teams are connected by former professional player Broeki. He simultaneously serves as a streamer for Eintracht Spandau and the founder of NNO Prime, adding extra intrigue to their rivalry. It was the channels of these clubs that became the leaders in terms of viewership on Twitch during the league.

Four NNO Prime games made it into the Top of the most popular matches in Prime League. However, the team itself performed very poorly in the league and took last place (winning only 2 out of 18 matches). It is obvious that the attention towards NNO Prime was not focused on its results, but rather on its media coverage and hype. When the team did not make it to the playoffs, the league viewership dropped significantly. As a result, none of the playoff stage games made it into the Top 5 most popular matches.

Other EMEA Division Leagues

Most popular EMEA Masters Qualifiers by Peak Viewers

TCL Summer 2023, Arabian League Summer 2023, Ultraliga Season 10, and other leagues are outside the Top 3 leagues. They lag behind the leader by 10-20 times in terms of Average and Peak Viewers.

Speaking of dynamics, compared to last year, almost all national leagues of the EMEA Masters division experienced a decrease in Peak Viewers. If we compare the summer seasons of 2022 and 2023, Prime League's Peak viewership has decreased by 16%, SuperLiga has lost 22%, and LFL has dropped by a staggering 29%. The Turkish league experienced an even more significant decline.

There are many reasons for such a decline, and they vary in different regions. For example, the Turkish league saw a significant drop in viewership after Riot Games revoked TCL's quota for the World Championship. In previous years, it would gather between 80K and 136K Peak Viewers, but in the last season, it only reached 24K PV. 

Most popular EMEA Masters Qualifiers by Hours Watched

In the Spanish SuperLiga, there have been significant changes among participants — Team Heretics and KOI moved to the LEC, leaving their academy teams behind. So now the main focus of fans of these clubs has shifted towards the franchised European league. LFL has a slightly different situation — the decline in viewership there is due to the weak performance of Team BDS Academy and LDLC OL. Last summer, they were the strongest teams of the season, but this year, they did not even make it to the Top 6. As a result, Karmine Corp had almost no "usual competition," which negatively affected the intrigue within the league. 

From August 14 to September 8, the best teams from national leagues will compete in the international EMEA Masters Summer 2023 championship with a prize pool of €150K. The tournament's viewership statistics will be available on the coverage page.