LCK receives over 500,000 concurrent viewers for opening day of the 2025 Season

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After keeping fans waiting, the LCK has finally returned for 2025. Following the highly successful LCK Cup, which reached 1,900,000 Peak Viewers (PV), fans patiently waited through a nearly two-month break. On April 2, the LCK 2025 Season kicked off with its brand-new format and reached over half a million viewers for its opening game, with much higher peaks likely on the way.

For 2025, the LCK has been consolidated into a singular event for the year, forgoing the traditional multi-split season. This new format means the LCK 2025 Season will continue into Autumn, weaving around mid-year international events. If you want more information on the details of the new schedule, we thoroughly explored the new system in our how-to-watch article.

Check out our entire Week 1 viewership recap for the LCK, covering the new record peak: LCK 2025 Season sets record opening viewership with almost 1,600,000 viewers

The first day of the LCK Season this year saw over 509,000 PV for the showdown between Hanwha Life Esports and Gen.G. These two were the leading LCK teams for 2024, and following a 2-3 defeat at the LCK Cup finals earlier this year, Gen.G managed to turn things around with a 2-0 victory over HLE. Ultimately, this exciting match between top teams was much more popular than DRX’s game against DN Freecs.

Between these two matches, there was a clear favourite among fans. However, the real potential of the LCK is yet to be reached, considering T1 is still to play. The world-famous roster has their first match scheduled for April 4, but their game against Gen.G on Sunday, April 6, will likely be even more popular. 

T1 as a star team shine brightest against the strongest competition, and their game against Gen.G could well peak at over 1,000,000 total concurrent viewers. At the LCK Cup 2025 earlier this year, T1’s first game on day two broke over one million concurrent viewers, and we see no reason why this won’t happen again for the LCK Season.

In total, the opening day of matches received over 1.15M Hours Watched across just over four hours of broadcasting time. While Korean-speaking viewers were the largest audience for the opening day, international viewership actually accounted for a slight majority overall: coming both from fellow Asian demographics such as Vietnam, but also from European and Western ones.

Considering these international audiences, games on the weekend are likely to receive much higher viewership than those during the week. Due to the schedule of the LCK, games take place in the morning for European and late in the night for American fans. Nevertheless, a significant international viewership tunes into the series’ games, but matches on the weekend are less restricted by these circumstances. 

The opening day of the LCK 2025 Season enjoyed relative success with over 500,000 concurrent viewers. However, sights are set on this weekend when T1 take the stage. The ongoing LCK season will continue throughout most of 2025, and Esports Charts will track viewership for every stage of the event. Follow the viewership of the event through the tournament page, or visit the schedule page to see when the next match can be caught live.