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 consultants worry the LCK could collapse solely 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 laborious to think about issues have modified a lot in 2025.
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League of Legends esports proceed to interrupt viewership information, with the LCK being extra widespread than ever this yr and seeing over 2 million concurrent viewers on the most important matches. Nonetheless, that viewership and people eyes on the league isn’t translating into revenue.
Specialists 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 explanation 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, complete gross sales went from 27.9 billion KRW (~$19,363,000 USD) in 2022 all the best way all the way down to 11.4 billion KRW (~$7,912,000 USD) in 2024. The quantity of complete income has been reduce by nearly two thirds, an enormous blow to the better league.
It’s price 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 could possibly 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 by way of recognition.
Colin Younger-Wolff/Riot Video gamesNonetheless, 2024’s huge blow may 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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Additionally 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 although it technically needs to be reported as a loss.
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So, whereas it’s not just like the LCK goes to right away collapse, consultants 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 were investing for years are having a really troublesome time, and consequently, 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 outdoors of the LCK after Riot’s restructuring, there’s an opportunity different elements of the world have it even worse.
