LEC Summer 2024 increased viewership compared to 2023 thanks to growing French audience

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The Summer splits of the regional League of Legends circuits are usually the least-watched of the year, and this edition is no different. Despite the low viewership compared to earlier splits this year, the LEC Summer 2024 is showing increased viewership compared to 2023. This comes from an assortment of factors, but largely it falls on the shoulders of the growing French-speaking audience for the LEC.

2024 marks the first year in which Karmine Corp are competing at the top level of EMEA League of Legends. The team has brought a sizable French fanbase with them, and also Kamet0 himself. Kamet0 is one of the co-founders of Karmine Corp, which was originally known as Kameto Corp, and often supports his organization’s rosters through community casting. The streamer has been covering their games in the LEC on his personal Twitch channel, and he has brought his huge viewership to the circuit.

Karmine Corp’s match against MAD Lions KOI on the second day of the first week was the most popular match of the week, with almost 386K Peak Viewers recorded. Mad Lions KOI also has one of the globe’s biggest streamers attached to the organization, ibai.

Ibai was once a League of Legends caster himself, and he thoroughly enjoys supporting his team through their battles in the LEC. Both ibai and Kamet0 covered their teams’ match against one another, and collectively, these two contributed 49% of the total peak viewership achieved during the match.

Community casting has become crucial for League of Legends’ EMEA circuit, even though the league heavily restricts who can host watch parties and co-cast the league’s matches. Looking at the top matches of the week, it’s clear the influence these co-casters have on the LEC’s viewership.

Karmine Corp not only recorded the most popular match of the week, but also the second-most popular game. They received 366K Peak Viewers for their match against Rogue, with once again a large portion of Kamet0’s viewership contributing to this total peak.

G2 Esports’ match against Team BDS was the only game to reach over 360K concurrent viewers without the support of one of these world-famous co-casters. G2 Esports has a long-standing history in the LEC, and was previously the league’s most popular team. Esports Charts PRO users can verify if this still remains true on the LEC Summer 2024 tournament page.

Team BDS is also one of the most popular team’s within the LEC thanks to its French roots. Karmine Corp aside, French language viewership has been generally growing for League of Legends and the LEC. Team BDS’ matches are always well-supported by a swathe of French fans. 

Compared to last year, the 2024 edition of the LEC’s Summer split has been wildly more successful. The event has not only drawn a higher peak viewership, but also held a much stronger average viewership throughout. This year’s LEC Summer received 234.4K Average Viewers for its first week of matches, over 60K more concurrent viewers than it received in 2023.

The event also generated 3.55M Hours Watched, an uptick of roughly 500K hours of watch time compared to last year. The effect of Karmine Corp joining the league is clear to see, on top of an overall growth of the French-speaking audience segment for League of Legends viewership. In past years ,Spanish was the most important language for LEC viewership behind English, but now, French has claimed this spot as the leading language behind English.

Viewership for the early stages of the LEC summer 2024 is rising, and we will continue to update tournament viewership statistics as the matches happen and keep a keen eye on the standing of the LEC’s Summer edition this year.