LCK Cup 2025 drew over a million peak viewers during the new T1 roster debut
The Korean professional League of Legends scene kicked off 2025 with the LCK Cup, a new preseason tournament announced by Riot Games just ahead of the year. Esports Charts has shared the viewership stats for the first week, and the numbers are pretty impressive.
The LCK Cup 2025 is similar to the winter seasons in other regional leagues and also serves as a qualifier for First Stand 2025, a new international tournament from Riot Games. To recap, the five best teams from the top franchise leagues — LEC, LCP, LPL, LTA Cross-Conference, and the LCK Cup champion — will compete in First Stand 2025. These teams will battle for the best seed at the Mid-Season Invitational 2025 for their region.
A standout feature of the LCK Cup 2025 is its unique format: in the first stage, teams will be split into two groups and only face off against teams from the opposite group. The group with the most wins overall will earn the best seed in the playoff bracket. Another exciting twist is the introduction of the Fearless Draft — a format where each champion can only be picked once per series. This draft style was previously used in China’s LDL league, and in 2025, it will make its debut in the LCK Cup, LCP Split 1, and Prime League Winter. It’s a bold move that will definitely make the longer series even more intense and exciting.
During the first week, the LCK Cup 2025 racked up over 8.4 million Hours Watched (HW). The average number of viewers per broadcast was 320,259, with peak viewership hitting over 1 million.
From January 15 to 19, the teams in the LCK Cup 2025 played two matches each, totaling 10 series. The most-watched match was between T1 and Dplus KIA, which drew over a million viewers at its peak. Notably, Dplus won the match 2-1.
The top three matches by peak viewership also included the T1 vs. DRX game and the series between Gen.G and Hanwha Life Esports. However, these games attracted far fewer viewers compared to the debut of the new T1 roster.
It's tough to draw conclusions about the viewership trends for the LCK Cup 2025, as this is the first tournament of its kind in the region, and it features an unconventional format. That said, it's clear that the viewership numbers were slightly lower than the first week of LCK Spring 2024. For example, the average viewership dropped by 14.25%, and peak viewership was down by 15.56%.
The biggest drop in audience reach occurred on Korean broadcasts, where average viewership fell by around 25%. English broadcasts also saw a decline, but it was more modest — just over 16%. On the flip side, Vietnamese fans were more engaged than ever, with viewership on Vietnamese LCK Cup 2025 streams surpassing the first weeks of LCK Spring and LCK Summer 2024. The key driver of this growth was the rising popularity of TikTok streams, which have been gaining more and more traction each season.
While the LCK Cup 2025 hasn’t set any new viewership records, it’s consistently reaching a high number of viewers. You can stay updated on all the tournament changes, schedules, match results, and viewership stats over at Esports Charts’ coverage page.
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