Scandalous VCS Spring 2024 split showed the second highest peak viewership in league history

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The Vietnamese League of Legends scene is going through challenging times. In mid-March, the VCS Spring 2024 league was rocked by a major scandal when 29 professional players were accused of involvement in match-fixing. As a result, organizers had to nullify the results of two game weeks and preemptively end the group stage. Despite this setback, the VCS Spring 2024 playoffs showcased the highest peak viewership in the past four years and the second-highest result in the league's history, narrowly missing the record.

Read more: VCS viewership takes a step backwards amid further struggles with the league’s competitive integrity

The winner of VCS Spring 2024 was GAM Esports — marking their fourth consecutive victory in the VCS season and their 10th win in the domestic league since its launch.

The most popular match of VCS Spring 2024 was the grand final between GAM Esports and Vikings Esports, it attracted over 312.5K Peak Viewers. The only event with more viewers was VCS Spring 2020, it was watched by up to 333.4K PV.

The increase in peak viewership was attributed to a greater number of community casters and broadcasting channels. For instance, while VCS Dawn 2023 matches were only covered on two official league channels on YouTube and Twitch, VCS Spring 2024 games were broadcast on nine. These included streams on TikTok and Facebook, as well as popular community casters like Hoàng Luân, and Văn Tùng. The latter two attracted 56.4K and 15K viewers at their peaks, respectively. However, the practice of inviting community casters began as early as VCS Dusk 2023, so it had already been in place since last year.

It's worth noting the viewership dynamics between stages. While the main official broadcast channel attracted 45-60K PV during the group stage of VCS Spring 2024, this number increased to 230.2K PV during the playoffs. A similar jump in metrics was observed for community casters as well.

Most popular VCS seasons by Peak Viewers

As it turned out, the scandal with match-fixing in VCS Spring 2024 did not affect the league's audience reach. Over the last three seasons, the average number of viewers per match has remained virtually unchanged, hovering around 37-39K people.