Will new LoL Pacific Championship combine or fracture viewership from VCS, LJL, and PCS?

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As part of Riot Games’ plans to revitalise and restructure the League of Legends global esports scene for 2025, many of the world’s Asian leagues are combining to form the League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP). This change is similar to the new pan-Americas league we recently covered, and will likely have critical effect’s on the region’s overall viewership, too.

Read also: New pan-Americas League of Legends circuit in 2025: will the region compete again?

As part of the 2025 LCP, the VCS, PCS, and LJL will all compete below it. These circuits will remain as tier-two events which qualify teams for the LCP through a promotion and relegation tournaments system. In Riot Games’ official announcement for the LCP, there is no mention of the LCO’s place within this new ecosystem. Presumably, the LCO will continue to qualify teams for international events through the PCS.

These new efforts to combine Asian viewership will leave the LCK aside. The Korean circuit is considered important enough to stand alone, and this means Asia will host three top-tier regional events in 2025: the LCP, LCK, and LPL. Esports Charts has collated the viewership statistics of the leagues affected by this new LCP: the VCS, PCS, LJL, and LCO. Explore the viewership directions of each circuit, and how they could possibly combine for 2025.

The VCS is the most popular circuit of all those contributing to the LCP next year. The VCS earned the highest Peak Viewers and Average Viewers of all circuits, and it even set a new peak viewership record in 2024. The Vietnam series recorded slightly lower watch time in 2024, as the circuits were significantly shorter.

The PCS enjoyed significant growth in 2024 thanks to its new playoffs events, which feature teams from the LJL and LCO. Although the PCS reaped the rewards of this change, the LJL and LCO suffered by having some of their autonomy taken away: both of these circuits in 2024 recorded lower watch time than last year, and the LJL also recorded significant decreases in peak and average viewership.

If we combined the viewership of all of these circuits and compared to their total 2023 results, viewership has remained relatively stabile for them. While the new PCS playoff stages have drastically impacted the viewership of newcomer leagues, the watch time growth of the PCS has balanced out these effects. The one fear for 2025, is that the viewership will decrease overall as regional fans feel less important. This already happened in the LJL, which recorded some of its lowest viewership in years in 2024, with many fans losing interest in their own regional circuit.

One of the biggest factors in the LJL losing viewership was also popular community casters like fps_shaka moving on the circuit, and not co-casting its events in 2024. Co-casters are extremely important for esports regional viewership, so let’s explore the top co-casters of all four of our selected leagues.

Leading the top of co-casting for the region are Vietnamese internet personalities. Thầy Giáo Ba on NimoTV was the most popular broadcaster for 2024, recording 92.8K Peak Viewers during the second split of the VCS. The Vietnamese streamer is a former League of Legends professional and also owner of SBTC Esports, who were disqualified from the VCS last year. 

Both of the other top Vietnamese streamers have roots in esports. Optimus is a League of Legends professional player and recorded 33.2K PV during the year’s second split. On the other hand, Hoàng Luân is a professional esports caster and streamer, and he generated 55.5K Peak Viewers during the year’s first VCS split.

International League of Legends commentator and British streamer Caedrel also appeared highly in our rankings; he covered the PCS Playoffs late this year, earning 23.1K Peak Viewers for his broadcast of the event. During the LJL’s opening split of the year, らいじん (alfrea) reached 16.2K PV. Surprisingly, Japanese co-casting has been of little consequence in 2024. Usually, Japan has many popular internet celebrities who will cover regional esports events throughout the year, but in 2024, many of the region’s popular co-casters decided not to cover this year’s events. The changes in 2025 will unlikely make this better, as the LJL has become a tier-two circuit, promoting and relegating teams from the LCP.

Vietnamese co-casting may be able to weather the storm better. The region features many passionate and loyal fans who have helped the region set new records in 2024. Even with the changes coming in 2025 which will divide its top teams between the VCS and LCP, the region could generate strong viewership for both the regional VCS and international LCP circuit.

With two new pan-regional circuits emerging for League of Legends in 2025, let’s compare their 2024 viewership of their respective circuits. Generally, the Americas’ circuits were able to reach higher viewership than the LCP circuits in 2024, but this viewership is heavily affected by the region’s top performers. The CBLOL and VCS are two of League of Legends’ strongest and fastest-growing regional circuits, but the CBLOL is outpacing the VCS’ growth.

However, the Asian circuits also feature the PCS, another circuit which has increased its viewership in 2024. In the Americas, the CBLOL is the only circuit still growing in viewership, and the LCS and LLA individually are losing viewership. The PCS was able to increase its audience significantly in 2024 thanks to the new playoffs stage featuring the LJL and LCO, but it seems the LJL will host its own playoffs again for promotion and relegation in 2025.

The critical question for the LCP in 2025 is if it will split viewership. The LJL and VCS feature passionate regional audiences, but how will these audiences fare if their top teams are split across the international LCP and regional tier-2 events? The region is being brought closer in-line to the LEC and how Riot Games operates in Valorant, and the hope is that this change will bring stable international viewership to the scene. 

Co-casters will be crucial for the LCP’s first year in 2025. If the circuit is able to attract popular community figures from Japan, Vietnam, and other regions to co-cast the international circuit, it may well achieve impressive viewership figures. If Japan’s top internet celebrities return to co-casting League of Legends esports in 2025, the combination of the VCS and LJL’s potentials could rival the viewership of the new Americas circuit.