Riot Games was willing to give us the League Championship Series (LCS) back after the disastrous LTA experiment. But it looks like Riot was right after all about LCS: the League of Legends esports scene doesn’t care about it.

LCS Spring 2026 peaked at only 183,152 live viewers, according to Esports Charts, making it the least-viewed LCS season to date.

The LoL Esports scene was relieved when Riot finally gave in and brought back the LCS. The LTA rebrand was highly criticized by the esports community, with many feeling it didn’t really click with fans. Viewership drastically dropped.

Back in June 2025, Carlos Antunes, Head of League of Legends Esports Americas, spoke with Esports Insider about the backlash: “We knew things might start off slower — it takes time for people to get used to something new.

“And bringing them back — and introducing new fans — is going to take continued effort.”

But I guess Riot didn’t feel like putting in that effort, bringing the LCS back shortly after. Unfortunately, it didn’t win back fans. In fact, many had already left and refused to return.

For the second split in a row, the North American region didn’t surpass 200,000 peak viewers. And it didn’t really seem to matter which teams were playing or how exciting the matches were. Or how much was at stake. The average viewership remained around 64,000, a 29% drop from Lock-In a few months ago.

A major reason is co-streamers. We’ve debated the legitimacy of co-stream viewership at Esports Insider before, following incidents like this. Portuguese-language broadcasts and co-streamers used to really boost LCS’ viewership, but Esports Charts noted a 75% collapse in watch time. Were people actually watching the LCS back then? Or were they just watching whatever their favorite streamers were watching? As I previously argued, it doesn’t seem like the streamers’ fanbase has translated into a legitimate LCS fanbase that tunes in on its own time.

The LCS is just not that compelling to watch. You know how it ends: they won’t have any chance against teams in Europe and Asia, and they won’t qualify for the World Championship. It’s sort of like watching a suspense thriller film, knowing exactly who the killer is before you even sit down with your popcorn.

Riot is hoping to make the LCS a bit more interesting by bringing back best-of-three round-robin for the Summer Split. The playoff for that split will also be held at the Gas South Arena in Atlanta in front of a live crowd, which Riot is hoping will increase the hype. But I just don’t think it will completely turn it around. The LCS is cooked.

While there are some fun teams to watch, some juicy storylines, and some wild plays, it’s tough to feel invested when you know you’re essentially watching the “worst of the best.” Everything that feels impressive to watch during the LCS will be easily wiped by the LEC and LCK teams later. It’s just a bit disheartening. Not only are you watching a slow death, but you are watching a slow death of a team you are growing fond of.

It’s just a bit depressing.

Co-streaming has become a huge part of the esports ecosystem, for better or worse. The industry has mixed feelings about co-streaming’s place in esports, so we figured we’d share our own opinions.

Aaron Alford is a professional debater, and I’m just here to rant and rave about a topic. But we are both just having some fun looking at an interesting and complex topic in our industry. However, see if either of us convinced you of anything.

I was recently covering the RLCS 2026 Paris Major because Rocket League fans were wondering why this major had such a massive viewership decline compared to the Boston Major. I know people love to say that things are “dying” constantly around here, but it’s actually the opposite. Rocket League was never super popular, and Boston’s numbers did not reflect the actual fanbase. 

That’s because Boston had massively inflated viewership since extremely popular variety streamer Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart had been co-streaming. With nearly 16 million followers between his Twitch and YouTube, Jynxzi had plenty of built-in, loyal viewers that would have watched him whether it was the RLCS Boston Major or just him farting and playing Among Us. 

When Jynxzi didn’t co-stream the Paris Major, the fans didn’t stick around to keep watching the RLCS. They remained on Jynxzi’s Twitch watching him play whatever game was next on his schedule. Rocket League didn’t gain a massive number of fans and the viewership went back to normal. 

I’m here to argue that co-streamers are an awesome addition to the esports ecosystem in many ways, but they don’t actually prove that esports tournaments have a large number of viewers. 

Another example of that is League of Legends esports. League of Legends is viewed far more than Rocket League, but its numbers are still inflated by co-streamers. In 2025, co-streamers surpassed official broadcasts for tournament hours watched. The esports community even acknowledged that Marc “Caedrel” Lamont was practically required to co-stream LoL Esports or the viewership would decline drastically. 

I’m not here to say that viewership doesn’t increase when popular co-streamers are involved. That’s is obvious. I’m here to say, once more, that these viewership stats don’t actually mean that esports is gaining popularity or fans. These people are watching because they would watch anything the streamer does. Therefore, I don’t count these viewership numbers towards the esports event itself. They count in the sense that they are a number, but it doesn’t count as genuine interest in esports. 

And why does this matter? It doesn’t. I just like debating with Aaron (even though it’s intimidating). But I would like to point out that many esports scenes, like the FGC, are also frustrated by publishers’ and tournament organizers’ desperation to inflate esports’ popularity rather than focus on actual fans. 

Shoving streamers and content creators into events will get random people to tune in and make the tournament get more ad revenue or fake popularity, sure. But it takes away from the realness of these events. It shouldn’t be about the streamers and their fans. It should be about the top pro players and their talent. It should be about the community, the ones that actually care about the game and the players. 

Co-streaming isn’t terrible. A few people may stick around and become fans of the esport title on their own after seeing the content creator stream it. And that’s the point. However, I don’t think this happens as often as people think. Based on numbers. 

But again, don’t listen to me. I’m just here to see if I can hold my own in this debate. 

Co-streaming, a broadcast format that allows certain streamers to watch-party an event, has become a mainstay of the esports broadcast scene, as Olivia pointed out. 

Not only have costreams helped build community and awareness around different esports, but they are also contributing significant numbers of viewers to events — this I do not question. In some cases, co-streamers have been known to exceed even the official broadcast in viewers, as was the case at the peak of Tarik’s viewership for VALORANT esports events.

But does that mean, saying that the esport isn’t popular, because the views are coming through watch parties instead?

I disagree with those who would question the validity of these views. While it is true that some number of viewers on a co-stream would not have otherwise tuned into the event, the popularity of costreams does not take away from the success of an esport — it shows that the esport is a spectacle that can hold the attention of casual and hardcore fans alike when its brought to their attention.

But more importantly, it demonstrates that success in esports isn’t just about how many people can name all the players on stage, it’s about the ability to foster community. 

Unlike traditional franchise sports, esports don’t have the benefit of tens millions of dollars in corporate sponsorship on every event, with their athletes showing up on cereal boxes (unless it’s Faker), and where their tournaments are celebrated across broadcast television and broader culture as the next big thing (perhaps with the exception of something like League of Legends Worlds).

They rely on word of mouth and organic growth, and one of the methods of organic growth is co-streaming.

Competitive scenes aren’t just about sick nasty gameplay. They are about connecting with like-minded people and experiencing the drama of sports together. They are, in a very real sense, about connection. Even in the case of Jynxi watching RLCS, suggesting they weren’t a valid part of the viewership is like suggesting that Swifties who tuned in to watch the Chiefs don’t demonstrate the NFL’s success.

Speaking of the NFL, even in that league, co-streamers are becoming an extension of sports culture. Much like how the NFL has its ManningCast, where Eli and Peyton Manning watch American football games, so too does esports costreaming culture add to the ecosystem of esports — even when only a temporary boost. The mistake is believing that costreaming audiences are somehow separate from the esport and its culture.

Even if Jynxi doesn’t show up to every RLCS event, the fact that he tuned in at all shows the esport is reaching broader audiences.

I think the mistake here is believing there is such a thing as absolute popularity, a quantity that can be measured and derived absent cultural context. There is a reason people go to Super Bowl parties in the United States, even if they don’t watch the regular season. There is a reason that everyone gets together to watch the World Cup, even if they don’t watch soccer regularly. It’s because sports are more fun together, and sports peak at certain moments due to a variety of factors — all of them valid.

Esports is still pretty niche. It doesn’t have the same physically located locus of culture that sports has in the form of sports bars. It simply hasn’t grown big enough in many parts of the world to support esports bars (though they exist in some places). For many fans, if you want the experience of watching esports with a community, with fellow fans of the sport or the same team, watch parties are the best way to do that.

To suggest that these viewers aren’t valid, even if they are just there because their favorite streamer is costreaming, is to ignore almost entirely the social aspect of watching sports.

Sports is social, esports is too, and every viewer is valid no matter who.

The thing is, esports isn’t a traditional sport. There are no pay-per-view games (usually), merch barely sells, there aren’t men breaking televisions when Team Liquid loses at a Counter-Strike major. Esports are nowhere near as big, which could explain why so many companies and publications focus on views. It’s like they are trying to prove that fans exist, that esports is growing. 

Because it needs to. 

Watch parties are super fun for esports fans who don’t feel so isolated in their fandom anymore. Maybe they even force their friends to go and see what it’s like. Maybe. And co-streaming is neat, temporarily boosting viewership and engagement as non-esports fans check out what’s going on because they want to see what their favorite streamer is yapping about. 

But again, these kinds of things shouldn’t really count as factual viewership numbers, especially if we want to pretend that the viewership increased. All viewers are valid as people. I hope they had a fun time checking it out. However, these viewership stats still don’t count for me if we are talking about strict data and attempting to prove esports is growing. Or getting watched at all. 

Claiming that the RLCS Boston Major was massive and counts as some Rocket League record is just silly. People see that and run with it, claiming that the game is growing and has all this potential. The reality? Those Jynxzi fans did not stick around. All it did was make the Paris Major look sorta like a failure when in reality the Boston Major was just a farce. Yes, those views did happen. But if we want to really look at how an esport is doing, it’s all skewed now. 

Remember when Ludwig said he wanted to have the “biggest” Rivals of Aether II tournament ever so he bought people’s tickets to get them to register? Same idea. It’s now the biggest one. Congrats. But it’s not real if we want to go by actual interest. Many of those people will drop out and do something else at Evo, which will actually negatively impact that bracket. You can argue that it’s “all in good fun” or that it’s “supporting community” or “getting people out there.” 

And I’d agree. But the interest is still fake. Those numbers are exaggerated. Those people are not clamoring to compete in Rivals of Aether. They are just supporting Ludwig, a streamer they like, and getting free tickets to an event. Some people even said on Reddit that they weren’t going to Evo at all. They were selected after signing up for the free three-day pass, but couldn’t actually get to Las Vegas. It’s all just a publicity stunt at the end of the day.

That “word-of-mouth” tactic inflated numbers for the weekend, but didn’t create an impactful number of fans that will stick around for the next one. 

Going by patterns, the next tournament will have waaay less registration. And very little viewership. And those are the numbers I’m going by. I’m not saying that Evo won’t be fun or that these guys with free tickets won’t fiddle around with the game. I’m saying that the true fighting game players are still quite low compared to the exaggerated hype. Do with that information what you will. 

But at the end of the day, co-streamer numbers don’t count when you’re trying to calculate esports’ actual growth and success. They only create temporary fun moments. 

You have asserted that co-streaming shouldn’t be considered real views that show a growing interest in an esport. Unfortunately, you have failed to provide a standard by which we can delineate “real” from “fake” co-streamers. If we have to choose between throwing out all the viewership data from co-streams, or keeping it all, we should err on the side of keeping it all.

In your response, you started by arguing that sports and esports differ in size, and that’s why focus on views matters more in esports than in sports. This is not true. Ratings for sports is a big discussion in traditional sports – views matter for both. 

Whether sports and esports are the same size is irrelevant to the question of whether or not we should count costreamer views as part of the valid viewership of an event. The goal of viewership data is to accurately represent the number of people who watched an event, period. If millions of viewers tuned in via costreamering instead of the official stream, regardless of who those costreamers are or their relationship to the esport, they should be counted to maintain the most accurate view count possible.

Sure, interpretation of that data from an intelligent person will take into account factors like Jynxi co-streaming the event, where the event was held, the time zone it was held in, the popularity of the teams that did well at the event, and more. Strong data analysis will easily control for outliers. But your suggestion isn’t that we should adjust our understanding of growth based on costreaming, your argument is that we should ignore costreaming data, because it is irrelevant to the question of whether an esports is growing or not.

This is analytically flawed.

Nothing you have said here in any way demonstrates that co-streaming views aren’t actual valid views. Given that many people who are watching co-streams would have watched the official stream if there was not a co-streamer watch partying the event, there is no way to fairly determine which viewers were just casuals passing through and which ones would have watched another streamer or the official stream, so throwing out all costreamer data doesn’t actually improve your understanding of the growth of the esport.

The thrust of your objection is that Jynxi watching a Rocket League event is an outlier, so it doesn’t speak to the growth of the esport generally. But the fact is, you have presented no criterion to decide which views should be thrown out and which ones should be kept. Viewership did go up because Jynxi watched, that’s factual. 

Going back to my previous example, should NFL viewership for Super Bowl LVll be thrown out because Travis Kelce brought Switfies out of the woodwork? After all, those Swifties won’t watch now that he retired, right? But the NFL had no issue bragging about its 113 million viewers who tuned in to watch.

Why should esports hold itself to an arbitrary standard, where we split hairs to determine which views are valid, when the biggest sports leagues in the world don’t?

Your entire discussion about the Ludwig drama is irrelevant to this topic. Nothing about it is about co-streamers or esports viewership, that is a discussion of a streamer who allegedly manipulated Evo’s rules to promote his game. Jynxi didn’t manipulate his view count, he didn’t engage in the inflation of views, he just co-streamed an event fair and square. The situations aren’t similar, and can’t be compared.

These are the facts. Co-streaming is here, it’s here to stay, and the views garnered for an event when an opinion leader co-streamed it are fair game to include when we discuss the event’s total viewership.

Ever since the Overwatch League died, Overwatch esports have been a bit of a depressing talking point in the industry. The Overwatch Championship Series hasn’t hit the same. The hype has largely disappeared, although some exciting teams remain.

When I saw that the OWCS Champions Clash had such an incredible viewership jump — with 290,600 peak viewers (during the lower bracket final, weirdly enough) and 5.4 million hours watched, two times that of last year’s — I thought, “Wow, people care more about Overwatch esports than I thought.”

And some esports fans felt the same, noting the varied meta and how many heroes were played (41 out of the 51). The audience in Tokyo, Japan was also very passionate during the broadcast. But that’s just a small part of the story.

Most esports events have drops these days, which are in-game awards fans can earn by watching the tournament for a certain amount of time on Twitch. But most of these drops are somewhat lame. I mean, it’s free stuff so people still want it. But it has often been sorta throwaway cosmetics.

But the OWCS went super hard this time around. For the Champions Clash, the Twitch Drops included skins for Kiriko, Hanzo, and Mizuki, as well as esports loot boxes, and other exclusive cosmetics. These were huge, especially for those who collect skins.

When news broke that the Champions Clash had a ton of viewers, most fans admitted it was due to the improved drops. It really made all the difference.

But that doesn’t mean nobody likes Overwatch esports.

Ever since Overwatch 2 dropped the “2,” added a bunch of heroes, and made other massive changes to the game to bring it back to the spirit of the original, the game has been exploding. After the Season 1 re-launch, Overwatch had over 165,000 concurrent players at one point.

And they have stayed, with the player count often reaching six figures. With the gameplay changes and added heroes, the meta has felt a lot healthier and more entertaining. This has improved the Overwatch playerbase.

And with a larger playerbase comes more people looking for exclusive drops. They may not necessarily care about the esports itself, but they can’t pass up a chance at having these special skins and loot boxes.

However, the drops were just the initial draw.

“I know drops are a huge reason why, but this was genuinely one of the best majors in years. Diverse comps and metas, huge upsets on the final day, more individual hero plays than I feel I’ve seen since the original season of OWL, all of the broadcast talent was enjoyable, and for me, most importantly, the fans at the arena were really into it,” said one fan.

Another added: “My friends who never really watch Overwatch esports tuned in for the drops and then were actually thoroughly entertained by the games, despite not really knowing anything about OWCS. Was super cool to see.”

So… Is Overwatch esports back? Not yet… But I think this was a good start. While people came for the drops because they care about the game, that’s a good foundation for the esports side of things. Now that there are more players, more people understand the game enough to watch esports broadcasts.

Now that they’ve checked out the action, maybe they’ll want to see more. And that’s thanks to the exciting matches and talented broadcast talent at this year’s Champions Clash.

We can’t predict if these Overwatch players will stick around. But we can confirm that drops make a huge difference. And other esports events should take note.

The viewership numbers from the RLCS 2026 Paris Major were shockingly low. Like, really low. It’s easy to immediately assume that Rocket League is dying, the old esports mantra. But what’s actually going on?

Well, it’s not dying. But the excuses people have for the reduced viewership actually do point to one thing: it’s not popular. And it’s not retaining interest.

The RLCS 2026 Paris Major is still underway, with the best-of-the-best Rocket League teams from around the world gathering in France to shoot balls around while driving cars. There is really no denying that Rocket League is a fun game. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s simple to understand, but the pros have some crazy tricks up their sleeve that raise the hype.

But does it make a good esport?

So far, the most-viewed match from the Paris Major was a Group Stage clash between Team Vitality and Karmine Corp. It reached a peak concurrent viewership of 179,000. It’s not horrible. Again, not dying. But it’s nowhere near the viewership numbers we saw at the RLCS Boston Major a few months ago, which had over 1.6 million hours watched on the opening day compared to Paris’ 800K.

Esports Charts did a deep dive into these numbers and seems to think there is one key difference: Nicholas “Jynxzi” Stewart. The popular gaming streamer was a commuter caster at the Boston Major, bringing the Rocket League esports action to his 10 million-plus followers on Twitch and 6.3 million on YouTube.

Jynxzi was not a co-streamer this time. At least not yet. We will get Corentin “Gotaga” Houssein for Paris, a French creator who is excited to co-stream the event from his home country. This could boost the viewership, sure. But that’s the thing…

The RLCS Paris Major isn’t cooked. No, the RLCS Boston Major was carried. Now that there is no content creator boosting numbers, we can see what the true viewership is for Rocket League’s biggest event of the year.

And it’s safe to say that Boston’s numbers were inflated.

Esports Charts noted that even the RLCS Twitch channel was dramatically lower this year, going from 64,800 at the last major to 26,000 this time. Nobody was drawing people in, enticing them to check it out.

Rocket League is not alone, of course. Most esports rely heavily on content creators to co-stream events to mainstream gaming audiences.

FlyQuest made some cringe video last month that attacked co-streaming, claiming that it was damaging the esports industry. Well, except their own content creators and stuff, of course! But streamers aren’t taking away from the esports industry. There’s nothing to even take. They are adding to it. They are bringing viewers in. Temporary viewers, but viewers just the same. Tournaments have started to rely on this rather than invest in their own broadcasts or create a structure that actually improves permanent fandom growth.

Without co-streaming, most tournaments would see pretty underwhelming viewership. In 2025, co-streaming surpassed official broadcast for esports tournaments in hours watched. Even larger esports like League of Legends rely on co-streaming, which became a huge topic of debate during the Mid-Season Invitational last year. Without popular streamers, the numbers would suffer. (Even with co-streamers, some LoL events, like the LCS, can’t seem to get any attention at all.)

You can say that co-streaming and content creators are saving esports. But I beg to differ. They aren’t harming it or anything. They’re not taking away views. It’s not like those who tune in to these co-streams would watch the legit broadcast on their own without their favorite streamer encouraging them. Be real.

So no, there is no harm done. It just shows how flimsy the esports scene is. It would fly away in the wind if it weren’t for the streamers holding the strings. Esports is just not large enough to support the kind of money that’s put into it. The numbers are all inflated. The hype is displaced.

Without streamers and their fans begrudgingly tuning in, these esports broadcasts would see a shocking dip in viewership. Like the RLCS. The fans don’t stay after. They don’t become die-hard Rocket League fanatics. They are Jynxzi fans. That’s it.

There is a reason that Evo is desperate to add content creator showmatches this year. It needs the numbers. Of course, the FGC does not want it. They’d rather die than try to appeal to mainstream gamers. But other esports titles know that it’s a necessary evil. It’s the only way to pretend esports is growing. That esports has that many die-hard fans.

But the numbers are not real. And there is only so much time that esports can buy until it has to admit that these viewership numbers are not here to stay.