The LCK, Korea’s premiere League of Legends circuit, is working at an enormous loss. They’re bleeding cash quickly, with the league shedding billions of Korean Received yr over yr.
It’s on the level the place monetary specialists worry the LCK could collapse totally in the event that they don’t diversify their income streams, with precise profitability of the league taking an enormous dip in 2024.
Although it wasn’t precisely worthwhile in 2022 or 2023, 2024 was an enormous down yr and noticed the most important losses within the LCK’s historical past. And it’s arduous to think about issues have modified a lot in 2025.
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League of Legends esports proceed to interrupt viewership data, with the LCK being extra standard than ever this yr and seeing over 2 million concurrent viewers on the most important matches. Nevertheless, that viewership and people eyes on the league isn’t translating into revenue.
Consultants worry LCK could collapse
League of Legends went via huge restructuring throughout nearly each professional league going into 2025, with Riot looking for methods to make each professional league extra sustainable. And, now that the monetary reporting for the LCK is public, we’ve gotten a peek at a part of the rationale why.
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The LCK Company’s reported losses are as follows for every year:
2022: 8.1 billion KRW (~$5,621,000 USD)
2023: 13.2 billion KRW (~$9,161,000 USD)
2024: 28.5 billion KRW (~$19,780,000 USD)
This has resulted in cumulative losses totaling 42.7 billion KRW (~$29,635,000), with a lot of that being incurred in 2024 alone.
Moreover, whole gross sales went from 27.9 billion KRW (~$19,363,000 USD) in 2022 all the best way right down to 11.4 billion KRW (~$7,912,000 USD) in 2024. The quantity of whole income has been minimize by nearly two thirds, an enormous blow to the higher league.
It’s value mentioning that Riot has 100% possession of the LCK company, and that them reporting losses may nonetheless imply Riot’s making a living off the league. A lot of this may very well be attributed to the LCK softening operational prices for taking part groups by decreasing the membership charges and offering revenue sharing so the groups they’ve can keep afloat.
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That is even factoring in that the LCK hosts T1, arguably the most important esports workforce on the earth when it comes to reputation.
Colin Younger-Wolff/Riot Video gamesNevertheless, 2024’s huge blow could be attributed to their streaming exclusivity cope with Chinese language platform Huya falling via, a deal that had been financially stimulating the LCK for years.
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In addition they held Valorant Champions Seoul within the LoL park enviornment, incurring operational prices that have been reported on the LCK Company’s financials. There’s an opportunity that this was revenue for Riot regardless that it technically needs to be reported as a loss.
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So, whereas it’s not just like the LCK goes to instantly collapse, specialists worry that this path isn’t sustainable.
“Though the affect of e-sports is rising, they haven’t discovered a income construction but, so the LCK groups which have been investing for years are having a really tough time, and in consequence, the prices that Riot Korea has to bear are rising,” reads a report from South Korean monetary publication DealSite.
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And, with viewership trending down for many leagues exterior of the LCK after Riot’s restructuring, there’s an opportunity different components of the world have it even worse.
