LFL Summer 2024 marks one of the league's lowest audience reach seasons

Loading

The French LFL (Ligue Française de League of Legends) is currently navigating a challenging period of transformation. Following the departure of Karmine Corp’s core roster, viewership has been steadily declining, the popularity of top teams has waned, and community casting is struggling to offset the loss of audience. This decline mirrors the issues faced by the Spanish Superliga.

The LFL Summer 2024 season, which lasted just over two months, concluded with the grand finals in early August. Team BDS Academy dominated the group stage, achieving 17 wins out of 18 matches and only losing once to an underdog team. Karmine Corp Blue secured second place with 15 victories. While these results confirmed the teams’ positions as favorites, the performance of Gentle Mates was a notable disappointment; Gotaga's team finished the group stage in eighth place and failed to advance to the playoffs — a sharp decline from their third-place finish in the previous season when they had represented the region at the EMEA Masters.

As in the spring season, the championship of LFL Summer 2024 was decided by a matchup between Team BDS Academy and Karmine Corp Blue. In the upper bracket final, Karmine Corp Blue achieved a decisive 3-0 victory. However, Team BDS Academy claimed the grand final with a 3-1 win. This marked Team BDS Academy's fourth appearance in the LFL finals, but it was their first championship title.

LFL Summer 2024 saw a decline in viewership, with a total of 3.9 million Hours Watched and an average of 31,200 concurrent viewers per match — both the league’s worst metrics since 2020. The peak viewership for the season reached just 135,500, also among the lowest in recent years.

The top five most-watched matches of LFL Summer 2024 all featured Karmine Corp Blue. Surprisingly, none of these matches included games between Karmine Corp Blue and Team BDS, even excluding their grand final series. The most popular game was the match between Karmine Corp Blue and Gentle Mates, covered by kamet0 and Gotaga, two well-known French streamers and club owners.

What is driving this decline in audience? The issues affecting the LFL are similar to those faced by other national leagues, such as the Spanish Superliga. The primary problem is the league's heavy reliance on one or two high-profile teams. In the 2022/2023 seasons, Karmine Corp was a major draw for the league. With Karmine Corp now competing in the LEC, only their academy team remains in the LFL. Despite Kamet0 still covering matches for both teams, viewers’ attention has shifted to the main squad. For example, Karmine Corp's matches in LFL Summer 2023 had an average viewership of 80,900, while Karmine Corp Blue in LFL Summer 2024 averaged only 60,000 viewers.

The introduction of Gentle Mates, led by popular streamer Gotaga, partially mitigated the impact of Karmine Corp's departure. However, this did not solve the league’s core issue. When Gentle Mates performed poorly and exited the tournament early in LFL Summer 2024, the league lost Gotaga’s community engagement and saw a significant drop in viewership.

Another issue is the decline in viewership on major broadcast channels. The official otplol_ channel averaged 27,400 viewers in LFL Summer 2023, but this fell to 21,600 viewers in LFL Summer 2024. Similarly, kamet0’s channel saw a decrease in average viewership from 48,500 to 30,000 viewers over the past year.

Lastly, the high number of foreign players is a growing concern. Although LFL is a French league, international players outnumber local ones, leading to a loss of local identity. While this issue is not as severe as in the Spanish Superliga, it still affects the league. Additionally, there is an urgent need to broaden the range of broadcast languages and platforms. Currently, 99% of the league’s HW come from French Twitch streams, with no English-language broadcasts or streams on other platforms.

LFL Summer Seasons Comparison

LFL Summer 2024 saw a significant decline compared to the previous year. Total Hours Watched fell by 22%, the average number of viewers per broadcast dropped by 17%, and peak viewership decreased by 9.1%.

This past season was one of the weakest in the league's history, but this may be a temporary setback. As noted, the LFL is currently transforming, and the drop in viewership follows the departure of a leading team. The next season will be crucial for assessing the LFL's trajectory, as the 2025 viewership figures will provide a clearer picture compared to the 2024 data. Both the LFL and the Superliga have shown their value as breeding grounds for talent, but Riot Games may need to invest more in boosting the popularity of these leagues both within their regions and on a global scale.