The Los Ratones effect: How did LEC 2026 Versus’ viewership move through the weeks

Across the whole event, LEC 2026 Versus had a peak of 734,933 concurrent viewers, with 33,807,198 hours watched, and 317,688 average viewers across 106h 25m of airtime. As you would think, the peak came in the Grand Final: G2 vs KC – played on March 1, and it’s also listed as the most watched match in the event.

So, as a “winter replacement split”, it wasn’t a side show – it actually finished with good headline numbers.

How viewership moved through the weeks

Week 1 – Lower numbers than expected, but steady(ish)

The new format didn’t magically boast a new audience, but it also didn’t tank the existing one. Hours Watched went up mostly because of the bigger schedule, while the Peak Viewers and Average Viewers went down vs the opening week of the prior LEC 2025 Winter (roughly ~20% PV drop, and ~7% drop in a week-to-week comparison).

LEC 2026 Versus vs LEC Winter 2025 - Week 1 viewership — LEC 2026 Versus vs LEC Winter 2025 – Week 1 viewership comparison (Image credit: Esports Charts)

So Week 1 felt more like a “solid baseline” rather than “holy **** moment”.

Weeks 2-4 – The Los Ratones effect kicks in

That’s where the graph line started bending upward – and that’s mainly because Los Ratones (and Caedrel’s co-stream) became the engine of the regular season.

The biggest regular season spike is Team Vitality vs Los Ratones (Week 4, Day2) at 592,072 Peak Viewers.
Right behind it: G2 vs Los Ratones (Week 3, Day 2) at 585,313 Peak Viewers.

And it wasn’t just “everyone loves the rats” moment – the reports point out the shift in audience too, with LR boosting English-language interest in a way that previous LEC seasons didn’t.

Translated: regular season’s viewership didn’t climb evenly through the weeks. It spiked when LR played, and went to normal when they didn’t.

The Playoffs – the drop-off is real (until the final)

The important part: once Los Ratones were out, the LEC 2026 Versus Playoffs opened with a noticeable 33% lower peak viewership, compared to that Los Ratones driven group stage high.

But still, it wasn’t dead:

Playoffs were still holding over 250k Average Viewers early on, so the floor was healthy. Just not at the LR mania ceiling.
The most watched playoff match before the final weekend was Karmine Corp vs Team Vitality, boasting 397,000+ Peak Viewers, which was helped a lot by the French audience and co-streams.
The split’s peak was set on March 1st: G2 vs KC Grand Final, with 734,933 PV.

LEC 2026 Versus - Playoffs days 1-5 viewership stats — LEC 2026 Versus, Day 1-5 viewership stats (Image credit: Esports Charts)

TL;DR

Regular season viewership was not smooth. It depended of the matchups, and it was heavily boosted by LR-related storylines.
Playoffs started slower without LR, but it didn’t collapse – and the Grand Final was massive anyway.
Overall, Versus ended with strong total consumption (33.8 million Hours Watched) and a very healthy peak (734,933 Peak Viewers) for the final.