LEC Versus 2026 Week 1 Peak Viewership down 20% in comparison to LEC Winter 2025

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 20/01/2026

Week 1 of LEC Versus 2026 saw a 20% decline in peak viewership in comparison to Week 1 of LEC Winter 2025.

Despite Los Ratones attracting strong viewership, the LEC still face a huge challenge in 2026 if they are to stop declining viewership figures.

Los Ratones viewership strong, despite LEC struggles

LEC Winter 2025 Week 1 saw a peak viewership of 592,185 in the contest between Karmine Corp and Movistar KOI, the third-highest peak viewership of the split.

In contrast, Los Ratones vs Karmine Corp saw LEC Versus peak at only 476,379 viewers, a fall of 20%, according to viewership aggregator Esports Charts.

The average viewership did not drastically fall from LEC Winter’s total event average, amounting to 304,194 viewers, declining by 23,875 or 7%.

However, that comparison is not direct, as that represents the total event average, as opposed to the Week 1 average. Week 1 tends to have strong viewership, meaning the figure may turn out to be harsher for the European league.

Despite the fall in viewership, Los Ratones’ impact was felt on viewership. The Rats’ contests were the three most-watched contests of the split and the only matches to break the 400,000 barrier.

Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont’s own stream consistently doubled in viewership when Los Ratones were playing, ballooning to a peak of 164,144, an improvement on his LEC Winter 2025 viewership of roughly 20,000.

The numbers reflect the engagement that the content team has been able to garner, yet KC and MKOI, whose brands also emphasise content creation, saw their viewership fall drastically.

KC vs MKOI’s clash in LEC Versus 2026 saw 377,545 peak viewers, a drop of 36% from the LEC Winter 2025 Week 1 contest.

Decline represents a challenge to regional leagues

That decline may be explained by isolated factors, such as the interest in then-rookie Caliste ‘Caliste’ Henry-Hennebert.

Additionally, fans have voiced displeasure with Best of 1s as part of the format, with Bo3s allowing greater draft variety and arguably growing the broadcast’s ability to attract viewership.

Despite those factors, the decline may also reflect macro-changes in the space.

A reflection of that is that KC vs MKOI’s LEC Winter Week 1 clash was itself a year-over-year decline from MAD vs KC in LEC Winter 2024 Week 1, something which cannot be explained by the above arguments.

League’s regions generally suffered a decline in 2025, with LCK being a significant exception, with average viewership growing 42%.

The success of the LCK points to the competitive level being a significant aspect of other regions’ declines.

Fans also commonly share the sentiment that they feel like the players don’t care about regional competition in comparison to international competition, competition in which the LEC teams have not exactly thrived in, in recent years.

The LEC’s challenge then is to make their competition more meaningful, compelling, and competitive. An extremely challenging task.

Los Ratones were elevated to tackle the first of those two. The stats show that they did attract viewership, but they are not a complete solution to the LEC’s problems.

Riot may have to give up on the idea that there will be a quick fix to its regions’ problems.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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