Half of LEC fans don’t have a viewing party or other live audience event in their area or country, showing a lack of events for fans to engage with.
However, just over 40% said they wouldn’t attend a League of Legends esports event.
The finding was made in the independent LEC Consumer Survey 2022, which drew 1,103 responses. It was put together by It’s Totally Amber, a community moderator for League of Legends esports broadcast personalities such as Medic, Nymaera, Foxdrop and Daniel Drakos, and explored LEC viewer habits.
Here’s a snapshot from the full survey:
Amber said in the full LEC Consumer Survey 2022 results document: “Many folks were unable to travel to [an LEC studio/arena] to watch live, but more than half of them did not have a watch party local to them or any happening in their country.
“Viewers need more watch party options for those who want a slice of the live audience experience, whether that is organised by individual orgs or the LEC/Riot themselves.”
The main LEC studio is in Berlin, while Malmö held the finals last year.
A quarter of LEC fans said there wasn’t a viewing party local to them, while a quarter said none were hosted in their country at all.
In the UK, we had a selection of viewing parties in 2022, including a unique Fnatic vs Excel Esports viewing party for the Summer 2022 LEC playoffs at Platform gaming bar in London.
Esports News UK also organised a Worlds 2022 grand final viewing party at the same venue (pictured, top), with several others taking place in bars and also cinemas over the years. There are plenty of gaming and esports bars in London, plus others dotted throughout the UK, like the Pixel Bars in Manchester and Leeds to name a few.
Survey highlights habits of LEC fans
The survey published a detailed list of findings.
Unsurprisingly, Twitter is still the go-to platform for LEC fans to get their news. content and updates, and the vast majority of LEC viewers said they love crowd interaction.
The majority of LEC fans (35.8%) play a mix of ranked, normal and ARAM games in League of Legends, with 13.9% playing mostly ranked, 9.4% mostly normals and 17.6% mostly ARAMs.
Three quarters (74.9%) of LEC fans in the survey have never been banned or chat restricted, and over half spent money on RP in 2022 (29.4% mostly for event passes and 26.8% mostly for skins and icons etc).
Almost half (44.9%) have been watching the LEC (previously the EU LCS) for more than five years. And just 6.7% bought LEC merchandise last year.
LEC fans were overwhelmingly impressed with the core on-air talent, content and analysis.
Amber also said she was humbled by the response to the survey, thanked everyone for taking part, and addressed some of the feedback received.
You can check out the full LEC Consumer Survey 2022 findings in the tweet’s google doc link above.
Last year, EU League of Legends fans said they want more local and smaller esports events to attend as there are ‘too many’ in the US, according to a Nottingham Business School survey.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
