LTA viewership down from LCS, is the new league in trouble?
The LTA North’s 2025 season has officially begun and the early outlook isn’t good, with viewership down year-over-year relative to the LCS in 2024.
League of Legends esports in the Western hemisphere got a whole new look for 2025. North America’s LCS, Latin America’s LLA, and Brazil’s CBLOL have effectively merged into one league; the LoL Championship of the Americas. With the LCS outwardly struggling with organizations selling back their franchises and Riot Games repeatedly overhauling production, the move was expected to at least drum up some early interest.
That’s not the case, though. The viewership numbers are in for the LTA North’s opening weekend and numbers didn’t go up. In fact, they went down enough that fans are worried about what’s to come.
LTA North 2025 opening weekend flops, comes in under LCS’s 2024 viewership
The LTA North’s opening weekend hit a viewership peak of 148,458 with an average slightly above 100,000. This is down from the LCS Spring Split opening weekend in 2024, which hit a peak above 192,000 and average viewership above 115,000, per Esports Charts.
The LTA North opening weekend featured all eight teams in the division competing. Viewership peaked for the match between Shopify Rebellion and FlyQuest.
These numbers represent a sizable dip year over year. The average viewership was down over 10%, while the peak viewership was down over 20%. Many were surprised by this, prompting wide-ranging speculation over the cause.
A number of the most recognizable and popular organizations in esports have walked away from the LCS in recent years.
Foremost among them is TSM, but several others have also bowed out of LoL esports.NRG, Immortals, the Golden Guardians, Evil Geniuses, and Counter Logic Gaming have all stepped away from the LCS. This turnover ended many of the league’s most iconic rivalries and has left many fans unfamiliar with the competitors involved.
Part of the surprise was also rooted in the competition happening at all. Some stated that they were established LCS fans, but a lack of marketing by Riot Games and buzz among the fandom saw the LTA North’s opening weekend slip beneath their notice.
Ultimately, there’s just one week of competition to speak of and it happened to partly overlap with the LEC Winter Split. But if numbers don’t come up a bit, it could spell trouble for the future of League of Legends esports.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XXjxpqMMC4
What happened to the LCS?
The LCS was shut down by Riot Games and replaced with the LTA, a new league that encompasses both North America and South America.
The 2024 LCS Summer Split marked the end of the league. In its place is the LTA, which brought together teams from the LCS, LLA, and CBLOL. Each split is divided into three parts.
The league has two separate conferences; the LTA North and LTA South. The split starts with both conferences playing in a double-elimination tournament. The top four teams in each tournament advance to the cross-conference tournament, a single-elimination tournament. The winner of the cross-conference tournament then advances to the following international League of Legends esports tournament. The first of the 2025 season is First Stand, which will take place in South Korea in March.
Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.
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