LCK 2025 Season ends among most-watched esports events of all time
After almost six months of action, interspersed by significant breaks for major global championships, the LCK 2025 Season concluded on September 28. It saw a familiar name in Gen.G reclaim the crown, while the exit of T1 in the Lower Bracket meant that the event fell short of beating the series record for peak concurrent viewers.
The LCK 2025 Season began all the way back on April 2, as the series' format was changed this year to a single, year-round league, meaning only one winner would be crowned at the end. After missing out in the last two splits, Gen.G came roaring back to clinch the title and continue its incredible run of reaching the Grand Final of the LoL Champions Korea, which now stands at eight straight appearances.
The latest event in League of Legends' biggest regional league peaked at just over 2 million viewers during the Lower Bracket Round 3 clash between heavyweights T1 and Gen.G, making it just the second split to do so. Gen.G came from 1:2 down to win 3:2 and send its biggest rival home, with the loss also extending the reigning world champions' wait for a domestic crown to at least four years.
The 2 million Peak Viewers (PV) that the LCK 2025 Season touched put it only behind the LCK Spring 2024, which holds the series record of over 2.6 million PV. Unsurprisingly, T1, the world's most popular LoL team, appeared on all five of the most popular matches list, with the top four all being games against Gen.G.
If T1 had reached the Grand Final, there was a good chance the 2025 split would have taken the series PV record. Considering it would also have been Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok & co's first LCK trophy since 2022, a win here could have pushed the 3 million PV mark as well.
Nevertheless, there was another series record that the LCK 2025 Season broke. With this competition running for an unprecedented amount of time, it created a new series record for watch time. It eventually reached 161 million Hours Watched (HW), becoming the first LCK split to break the 100 million watched hours barrier.
In fact, this LoL tournament entered the top three for the most-watched esports events of all time. Only the 2021 and 2024 LoL Worlds editions exceeded the LCK 2025 Season's 161 million HW, with the top seven on this leaderboard dominated by Riot Games' MOBA.
With the season over, the focus now turns to the biggest event of them all, the LoL Worlds, which will be held in multiple Chinese cities across October and November. Korea's representatives will be T1, Gen.G, Hanwha Life Esports, and KT Rolster, with T1 set to begin its title defence in the Play-In stage.
Esports Charts will be doing a series of articles on the 2025 World Championship [Worlds 2025], which readers can access in the news section. Moreover, those looking to gain in-depth data on top-tier events like the LOL Worlds can check out the PRO package for more details.
Detailed Esports data at your fingertips.
Subscribe to & start exploring!
