The regular season of the LCS Spring Split 2026 has just concluded, and it hasn’t been a success in terms of viewership. The tournament continues attracting fewer viewers, and the LCS Spring 2026 is now the lowest-watched split ever for NA (comparing regular seasons only). Despite returning to its original branding, the event keeps losing both national and international viewers.
The LCS Spring Split 2026 regular season holds the new record for lowest viewership, in terms of both hours watched and peak viewers. The event concluded with 3,326,297 hours watched and 86,608 peak viewers.
This is a 15% drop in hours watched compared to the next worst split, the LTA North Split 2. This is despite the latter having fewer games played, at 65 against 69.
The LCS Spring 2026 sits just above half of the CBLOL’s hours watched (6.44 million), and one sixth of the LEC’s at 19.96 million. In terms of watch time per hour aired, the LEC beat the LCS by a factor of 3.4.
Since Summer splits pull lower viewers than the Spring split that preceded them, this record is likely to get beaten once more in a couple of months.
| Event (Regular season) | Hours watched | Peak viewers | Hours watched / Airtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCS Spring 2026 | 3.3 million | 86,608 | 52k |
| LTA North Split 2 2025 | 3.9 million | 96,168 | 68k |
| LCS Spring 2024 | 6.9 million | 192,814 | 114k |
| LCS Spring 2023 | 10.0 million | 178,814 | 101k |
| LCS Spring 2022 | 11.2 million | 243,217 | 108k |
| LCS Spring 2021 | 14.9 million | 269,208 | 152k |
| LCS Spring 2020 | 17.4 million | 387,299 | 175k |
| LCS Spring 2019 | 19.0 million | 334,320 | 178k |
Much of NA’s initial popularity stemmed from big teams with loyal fanbases. TSM, Counter-Logic Gaming, Cloud9, those were the reigning three that everyone talked about and wanted to watch.
In 2023, though, two of them left League of Legends. With only C9 remaining, the viewership immediately dropped by a third. Some players stayed, but a new branding doesn’t hold the fanbase – which Riot also learned after the rebranding to the LTA in 2025.
Riot tries to save the LCS as League is dying in North America. Image source: Stefan Wisnoski / Riot Games
However, the players are another issue. Only a third of the LCS players are from NA – fewer than Koreans in the region. This isn’t about viewers, who don’t watch teams with NA players more. It discourages players from wanting to become pros, since they won’t get a fair shot.
The future of the LCS might not be as bleak, though. Riot will hold the LCS Spring final on a university campus to bring the action closer to the younger population.
More importantly, popular streamer Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart will be co-streaming the event. Jynxzi already hosted a LoL tournament that got ten times as many viewers as the LCS did. Investing into these seems to be Riot’s attempts at revitalizing the North American competitive scene.
Featured image source: Stefan Wisnoski / Riot Games
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