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LTA North viewership plummets by half in Split 2 compared to LCS Spring 2024
The struggles continue for the LTA North despite on-going efforts to spark life into the North American league. Now, the opening of week of Split 2 in the LTA North saw peak viewership drop by over 50% compared to its equivalent last season, the 2024 LCS Spring Split.
Split 2 Opening Week: Good Matchups, Bad Format
Going from 191.5k peak viewers to 94k over the course of a year is no small drop. At first glance, this loss of viewers may be difficult to understand given the continuous tweaks, updates, and releases with which MarkZ and the rest of the LTA team have come out over the last couple of weeks, such as a complete format overhaul for Split 2 and even the much requested LTA Fantasy app.
What's more, the opening week of Split 2 actually saw several exciting matches between the top teams in the league to kick things off, including a repeat of the very last LCS Finals between Team Liquid and FlyQuest. So, then, why the drop?
One possible explanation is that modern viewers are simply not interested in watching Bo1 matches anymore. With Fearless Draft being such a widely acclaimed addition to competitive League of Legends, a one-game match doesn't offer the possibility to see this system in action, which means there is no guarantee of variety from one match to another.
For now, Split 2 is locked into this Bo1 format for another two weeks while the Positioning Stage wraps to a close. Though the LTA had already launched to a rough start in Split 1 due to less-than-ideal format choices as well, could this latest drop find its explanation elsewhere?
International Struggles Continue
The lack of Fearless over the course of the opening week was certainly a bummer, but the truth is that the LTA North is coming into Split 2 off the back of yet another disappointing display on the international stage.
Team Liquid represented North America at First Stand 2025 in what was the first international tournament of the year. There, the team failed to make it out of the Group Stage, showcasing that the region is just not capable of competing with the biggest teams in the world at the time.
This latest international shortcoming could have had several effects on the LTA. On the one hand, viewers from outside regions are unlikely to tune in to catch games between teams that they know are no threat on the international stage. Meanwhile, even the most loyal of North American fans are liable to moving on to better things if they begin to feel that there are no teams in the region which are worth watching or supporting anymore.
A worrisome comparison
As the LTA struggles, other leagues across the world continue to thrive. The LCK, for instance, the region which has won the last three consecutive World Championships as well as First Stand 2025, saw the largest peak viewership for a Regular Season match in its history only a day ago.
While Split 2 of the LTA North drew 94k viewers at its peak, the LCK 2025 Season saw over 1.5 million viewers tune in to catch T1 vs Gen.G instead. Once one of the most exciting scenes to follow, these LTA numbers simply no longer reflect a region with as much League of Legends history as North America.
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Featured image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games
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