Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage sees 25% drop in average viewership

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The 2025 World Championship is reaching its peak! The final matches of the Swiss Stage just wrapped up in China, revealing all the teams that made it to the Knockout Stage. As League of Legends fans gear up for the final showdown, Esports Charts has released mid-tournament viewership stats — and the numbers are not so impressive.

2025 World Championship Report Page

Unlike the Play-In tiebreaker that featured only T1 and Invictus Gaming, the Swiss Stage saw every team take the stage. Korean and Chinese rosters entered as heavy favorites — and most of them lived up to the hype. On the international side, Europe’s powerhouse G2 Esports finally made it back to the Knockout Stage after three years of disappointment. Taiwan’s CTBC Flying Oyster also achieved a major milestone, reaching the Worlds top 8 for the first time in the team’s history.

As for the teams that fell short of the Knockout Stage, FlyQuest stands out — North America’s top squad couldn’t match its strong performance from last year. Another disappointment came from China’s Bilibili Gaming, which was eliminated in the fifth round of the Swiss Stage after losing to Top Esports Gaming.

2025 World Championship Swiss Stage Viewership Statistics

The 2025 Worlds Swiss Stage matches racked up over 66.6 million hours of total viewership — 20% less than the same stage last year. Average viewership per broadcast fell by 24%, and peak concurrent viewers dropped 14.7%. By nearly every metric, this year’s World Championship is currently trailing last year’s. Even T1 playing more Swiss Stage matches than last year hasn’t helped. The only bright spot is a slight rise in peak concurrent viewers on the Korean broadcast.

The standout match of the Swiss Stage was the fifth-round showdown between T1 and MKOI. The Korean powerhouse swept the European team 2:0 without much trouble. The series drew over 2.5 million Peak Viewers live, making it the most-watched matchup of the tournament so far.

The rest of the rankings are unsurprising — T1’s matches continue to draw the largest live audiences. The same pattern was seen at Worlds 2024, although the T1 vs. G2 Esports series back then reached over 3 million peak viewers.

Right after the Swiss Stage wrapped up, the 2025 World Championship organizers held the Knockout Stage draw. You can check out the full matchups in this report. Spoiler: a Korean derby in the final looks more likely than ever.

The Knockout Stage of the 2025 World Championship kicks off on October 28 and runs through November 9. All matches will be played in a best-of-five format using the Fearless Draft system. You can track the full schedule, match results, and live viewership stats on Esports Charts’ dedicated event page.