LTA North and LTA South viewership debut: early successes and challenges for the new leagues
Last weekend, the first matches of LTA North and LTA South, two new League of Legends leagues, took place. These leagues have replaced the LCS and CBLOL in North and South America, respectively. Riot Games is aiming to optimize the competitive scene in these regions by focusing on top-tier teams and filtering those deemed to be less successful or popular. Esports Charts have taken a look at the early results of these changes from a viewership perspective.
The professional League of Legends scene in North and South America has been struggling for the past few years. Teams have started dropping out of franchise leagues due to financial strain, academy teams have shut down, and rosters have been cut back. Viewer engagement has also been steadily declining, although community-driven broadcasting has helped slow that trend.
Adding to these challenges, LCS and CBLOL teams have rarely made a strong showing at international tournaments like MSI and Worlds (with a few exceptions). As a result, Riot Games decided to consolidate the top teams into the new LTA North and LTA South leagues. Now, these teams will compete for spots in the Cross-Conference, and the winners will advance to First Stand 2025, a new international event. In other words, the level of competition in the region should rise, but whether this will translate into better viewership numbers remains to be seen.
LTA North and LTA South have a similar format, and unlike other regional leagues like the LEC or LCS, local teams compete in a simplified season with a double-elimination bracket. Over the weekend of January 25-26, the first round of matches took place, with four games played in each LTA league.
The first round of LTA North 2025 Split 1 generated over 720,000 Hours Watched (HW). The average viewership across broadcasts was 98,102 viewers, with a peak of 148,603. In comparison, LTA North performed slightly better than the first weeks of LCS Spring and LCS Summer in 2024. For instance, compared to the Summer season, the Average Viewership (AV) increased by 26%, which is already a strong result.
The most popular match of the first round of LTA North 2025 Split 1 was between FlyQuest and Shopify Rebellion, peaking at 148,603 viewers. Community casting played a big role in this, especially with popular American streamer Charles ‘’moistcr1tikal’’ White Jr., who recently became a co-owner of Shopify Rebellion alongside Ludwig ‘’Ludwig’’ Ahgren. The third most-watched match was the 100 Thieves vs Disguised series, which was streamed by Jeremy ‘’Disguised Toast’’ Wang, another well-known streamer and co-owner of the team.
It seems that, in terms of community casting, the North American league has seen a bit of a boost in 2025, although the majority of viewers still prefer watching matches on the channel of Brazilian streamer Gustavo ‘’Baiano’’ Gomes.
As for LTA South 2025 Split 1, the league racked up over 1,900,000 Hours Watched (HW) in its first round. The average viewership across broadcasts was 140,557 viewers, with a peak of 254,464. Compared to the first weeks of CBLOL Split 1 and CBLOL Split 2, the audience reach in South America has stayed pretty consistent. While peak viewership has slightly increased, the average viewership has dropped — for example, compared to CBLOL Split 2, the average dropped by 11.2%. While this decline isn’t huge, it’s definitely noticeable.
The most popular match of the first round of LTA South 2025 Split 1 was between paiN Gaming and LOUD, two top Brazilian teams. Community casting played a big role here as well, including from Victor ‘’Coringa’’ Augusto, a LOUD streamer. Similar to LTA North, the largest audience came from Baiano’s broadcasts — this Brazilian streamer is now the most popular community caster in both regions, often outpacing even Riot Games' official channels in terms of viewership.
An interesting development in LTA South was the introduction of broadcasts in Spanish and English. After the first round, these languages made up about 10% of the total Hours Watched (HW). In the past, CBLOL broadcasts were dominated by Portuguese, but with teams like Isurus Estral, and Leviatán joining the league, it’s now attracting Spanish-speaking streamers and viewers who previously followed LLA.
The viewership numbers from the first rounds show that LTA South is drawing more attention than LTA North, continuing the trend we’ve seen in recent years between CBLOL and LCS. However, the North American league has seen a slight boost thanks to the addition of new community casters.
As for the other franchise leagues, LEC and LCS still dominate, far outpacing LTA leagues in terms of audience reach. It’s possible that the situation will balance out by the end of the season, and to stay on top of all the changes, you can keep an eye on the viewership stats for LTA North and LTA South over on Esports Charts’ report pages.
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