First Stand Grand Finals viewership defies expectations

League of Legends’ 2025 First Stand Tournament, the game’s first cross-regional competition of the year, has concluded with 1.1m peak viewers.

According to esports data platform Esports Charts, the event recorded 509,029 average viewers and 18m watch hours throughout its 35-hour air time.

First Stand is a newly-introduced international tournament that invites the winning team of the first Split in every League of Legends (LoL) region. Its inaugural edition featured Team Liquid (LTA Cross-Conference), Karmine Corp (LEC Winter), Hanwha Life Esports (LCK Cup), Top Esports (LPL Split 1) and CTBC Flying Oyster (LCP Split 1).

From March 10th-16th, the five opponents battled through a Round-Robin Group Stage and a Knockout Stage for a share of the $1m prize pool (~£771,000).

Although First Stand’s opening match between Karming Corp and Team Liquid showed promising viewership with over 700,000 peak viewers, the tournament continued with inconsistent audience numbers.

The event’s host location at Seoul’s LoL Park made it inconvenient for European fans to watch certain matches due to the significant timezone difference. Moreover, taking place so early in the season, First Stand may appear insignificant to some viewers.

Despite such concerns, the Grand Finals between French organisation Karmine Corp (KC) and First Stand winner Hanwha Life Esports surpassed 1m peak viewers, making it the second most-watched LoL competition in 2025 so far. Only South Korea’s LCK Cup was more popular, with 1.91m peak viewers.

First Stand was also co-streamed by several notable esports personalities, including Marc ‘Caedrel’ Lamont, Christian ‘IWDominate’ Rivera and KC co-owner Kamel ‘Kameto’ Kebir.

South Korea has been a dominating region within the ongoing LoL season beyond Hanwha’s performance at First Stand. Korean esports organisations Hanwha, T1 and Gen.G Esports currently lead the game’s global power rankings.

With First Stand concluded, all regions return for their second Splits ahead of the LoL calendar’s second international tournament, the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI). Kicking off on June 27th, MSI awards its winner with a direct qualification to the 2025 World Championship.