Riot Games said on the 7th that League of Legends (LoL) Champions Korea (LCK) in 2025, in the first year of its format overhaul, achieved the highest viewership metrics on record.
In the first year after switching to a unified season format, the 2025 LCK set an all-time LCK record with an average minute audience (AMA) of 634,000, up 42% from a year earlier. The annual average domestic audience also topped 200,000, a 31% increase from the previous year. Popular streamers on platforms such as Naver Chzzk and SOOP participated in co-streaming, which positively influenced viewer inflow.
Riot Games introduced a new league flow this year through the "LCK Cup," and delivered results that surpassed the LCK Cup in the ensuing regular season. The 2025 LCK proceeded with an integrated year-long structure: rounds 1–2 to start, the MSI representative qualifier, separation into the Legend and RIIZE groups for rounds 3–5, and then the play-in and playoffs. This secured a stable viewership trend across the season.
Global viewership indicators also grew significantly. In China, co-streaming on the HUYA platform led to 61% year-over-year growth, fully recovering from the prior decline. Vietnam also posted a 62% growth rate, showing a steep upward trend. Buoyed by this momentum, global viewership for the 2025 LCK was 15% higher than the 2024 summer split.
In particular, the newly introduced group separation for rounds 3–5 recorded an average minute audience of 564,000, up 25.6% from the same period a year earlier. Operating the Legend group with the top five teams and the RIIZE group with the bottom five teams strengthened the competitive landscape and increased the weight of rivalry matches, which proved effective.
The playoffs also drew strong attention. The performances of top-tier teams such as Gen.G, Hanwha Life Esports, and T1 drove viewership gains, while kt Rolster, which overcame struggles in rounds 3–5 to clinch a World Championship berth, and BNK FearX, which caused a sensation in the playoffs, also contributed to higher ratings.
Riot Games said, "As the new unified season operation system expanded viewer engagement, we will continue striving to deliver a fan-centric league experience."