LEC Winter 2025 drew 13% less viewers without ibai broadcasts
This weekend, the first matches of LEC Winter 2025 for League of Legends kicked off in Berlin, with the top European teams battling for a spot at First Stand 2025, a new international tournament announced by Riot Games just the day before. In this article Esports Charts have created a summary of the first day’s viewership, which was slightly lower than last year’s winter season.
For context, in 2025, the franchised leagues underwent some changes. Winning the winter season no longer guarantees the regional champion a direct spot at the Mid-Season Invitational. Instead, the winner secures a place in First Stand 2025 — a new international event featuring top teams from LEC Winter, LTA Cross-Conference, LCK Cup, LPL Split 1, and LCP Split 1. The tournament will take place in Seoul from March 10 to 16, and its results will help shape the MSI 2025 bracket.
LEC Winter Viewership Comparison
On the first day of LEC Winter 2025, five matches were played, generating just under 2,000,000 Hours Watched (HW) in total. The average viewership for these matches was 326,164, with peak viewership hitting 544,060.
The most-watched match on the first day of LEC Winter 2025 was Karmine Corp's victory over G2 Esports — marking the first time in their European league rivalry that Karmine Corp came out on top (G2 had won the previous four encounters). The series between Fnatic and KOI also drew a solid audience, with the Spanish team securing a win.
The first day of LEC Winter 2025 saw about a 12-13% drop in viewership compared to the opening of last year’s winter tournament. This decline was evident across all major language broadcasts: English peak viewership dropped by 11.7%, and Spanish streams experienced a sharp 38.3% drop. On the flip side, Polish broadcasts showed some growth.
So, what caused the drop in viewership? There are several factors. First, the start of LEC Winter 2025 didn’t feature top Spanish streamer Ibai ‘’ibai’’ Llanos, who is also the owner of KOI. Last winter, Ibai was actively involved, following MAD Lions KOI (the team’s former name) matches and becoming a leading figure in community casting.
This year, however, Ibai skipped the start of the league, likely taking time off after hosting the massive Kings World Cup Nations 2025 event. Instead of Ibai, KOI’s matches were covered by Sergio ‘’Knekro’’ García, another Spanish streamer and community caster for the club. While Knekro didn’t have as large an audience as Ibai, he was still able to draw some viewers away from the official LVPes channel.
Another factor is the presence of Kamel ‘’Kamet0’’ Kebir, the popular French streamer and co-owner of Karmine Corp. Last year, Kamet0 streamed nearly all of the first day of LEC Winter 2024, which significantly boosted French viewership numbers. This year, however, Kamet0 only streamed his team’s match, and his LEC Winter 2025 broadcast lasted only about an hour. As a result, the average number of French viewers dropped, although peak viewership actually exceeded last year’s numbers. The official French channel, otplol_, saw a small uptick in views, likely due to reduced competition from Kamet0.
The English-language streams were a different story: the official LEC channels on Twitch and YouTube lost nearly half their audience compared to last year. However, most of those viewers didn’t disappear but switched to community casters’ streams. For instance, Marc ‘’Caedrel’’ Lamont viewership doubled, which seems more than just a coincidence.
As we can see, LEC viewership is increasingly dependent on community casting, even when factors like Kamet0 deciding to stream only his team’s match come into play. Ibai remains a central figure in European League of Legends community casting, while Caedrel continues to rise, even surpassing the official English-language broadcasts in terms of viewership.
These are just a few reasons that may explain the drop in viewership interest. Other secondary factors could include less exciting matchups or the reduced tournament stakes — after all, the winter season no longer offers direct MSI qualification, which somewhat diminishes its importance.
Remember, you can follow the schedule, results, and viewership stats for LEC Winter 2025 on the Esports Charts coverage page.
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