LCS Summer 2024 sees shoots of viewership positivity ahead of upcoming changes

With the end of the LCS Summer 2024, another season of competitive action has ended in North America's top tier of League of Legends action. Although the Average Viewers and Hours Watched numbers continued to decline to near all-time lows, the Peak Viewers figure saw a split-on-split rise within the same season for the first time since 2020, bringing the series to a positive end ahead of a major reshuffle next year.

Just looking at the latest event in this NA league, its peak concurrent viewership was overtaken by the CBLOL Split 2 2024 and the VCS Summer 2024, while the LPL Summer 2024 came close to beating its corresponding LCS split for a third straight time. Meanwhile, other prominent leagues like the LCK and LEC continued to expand their audience reach.

LCS Summer 2024 – basic stats and most popular matches

The LCS Summer 2024 recorded 260.7K Peak Viewers during the Grand Final between Team Liquid and FlyQuest. It was the second straight summit clash between these two historical sides, with the latter reversing the result from the spring split with a 3:1 win to emerge as the final-ever LCS champion, at least for now.

This clash was by far the most popular game from this LoL tournament, with the second-best match only hitting 169.4K PV. The top four finishers were also involved in all the five most popular series played, with the eventual winner having as many as four appearances on this table.

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LCS Summer 2024 – most popular teams

The LCS Summer 2024 also registered 10M Hours Watched and 95K Average Viewers over an airtime of 105 hours. The changes revealed by Riot Games for 2025 might just have been a blessing in disguise considering these numbers are on the lower end of the scale when looking at the series' history, with recent competitions steadily losing audiences

Readers must more that the LCS Spring 2024 reiterated the continuing trend of the North American region losing viewership and attention almost with every split since 2020. This followed a tumultuous 2023 where teams sold their spots or opted for straight buy-outs, leading to the summer controversy that nearly threatened to derail the remainder of the season.

FluQuest is potentially the last-ever LCS champion before the Americas merger

While all parties involved tried their best to come to a middle ground ahead of a crucial 2024 season, things have not gone as planned. Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses chose not to remain in the franchise system; Shopify Rebellion acquired TSM's slot in the league after the latter decided to quit over the summer.

The new year started with some positive news as the average number of viewers for LCS Spring 2024 broadcasts increased slightly compared to last year. However, it has been a tricky road since, with the CBLoL and LPL overtaking its peak viewership, which seemed improbable a few years back.

If you want to get more information on how the LCS Summer 2024 became more popular than its spring counterpart for the first time in four years, including channel and platform contributions, head to our events dashboard to get information on pricing and its benefits.

Compared to the spring split, the summer events peak concurrent viewership rose by around 6%, but the watch time and average online viewership fell by 7.5% and 27.15%, respectively. This shows that the more compact format led to lower airtime and hence lesser watch time, with viewers remaining less engaged throughout the split, as seen in the lower AV. However, the summit clash saw enough interest as fans wanted to see which side would be America's first seed at the Worlds.

Moreover, all five of the most popular matches during the year's first split did higher PV figures than all but the top game at the following event. Despite three slots being available for sides to represent the region at the upcoming season finale, fans only seemed to show interest in who won the whole thing, with 100 Thieves joining the finalists in sealing a spot in the Swiss Stage of the 2024 Worlds.

Most popular splits in the LCS over the last three years

It is worth mentioning again that this was the first time in four years that the summer split outperformed its spring counterpart when it came to peak concurrent viewership. Not since the 2020 season did the second split of the season do better than the first, meaning the latest competition has done better than the last two splits by this metric.

Comparing the viewership statistics of the last two seasons

Comparing whole seasons, the 2024 season cumulatively saw drops in the HW and PV numbers but a slight jump in the AV figure. LCS made lots of changes, adopting a new format with shortened breaks between matches that led to a lesser watch time. That did help maintain a more steady audience throughout the season compared to 2023, but it didn't impact the other metrics positively.

Most popular games from the 2024 LCS season

While the Spring 2023 Grand Final between Cloud9 and Golden Guardians was the most popular match last year, this year saw the new rivalry between Team Liquid and FlyQuest come to the fore. Some of the league's oldest and most historical esports organizations appear here, and they will remain vital to the region's chances of reclaiming its luster as it enters a new era alongside its Brazilian and Latin brethren next year.

What fans can expect in LCS 2025?

LoL esports roadmap for 2025 (Image via lolesports)

The changes next year will see the LCS merging with the LLA and the CBLoL to form a North/South two-conference league region. One reason for this integration, as given by Riot Games, was to improve the performance of the combined Americas region at global events. With the Americas potentially coming together, the total number of regions will become five: Americas, LEC, LCK, LPL, and APAC.

There will also be an extra international tournament, yet to be named, that will serve as the calendar's first such event. Hence, the Mid-Season Invitational will move to a July window, with the increase in international championships also meaning an extra split added to each region. Esports Charts will be doing a detailed study of what to expect in American LoL, so readers interested in gaining access to it would do well to grab our PRO subscription.

Returning to the Americas, the new proposed model will see the LCS and the CBLOL compete as North and South conferences as a pan-Americas league. Each conference will maintain six of its existing partnered teams, integrate one team from the LLA based on geographical alignment, and reserve one 'Guest team' spot for promotion and relegation through the Tier 2 system, for a total of eight teams per conference.