The LCK, Korea’s premiere League of Legends circuit, is operating at a massive loss. They’re bleeding money rapidly, with the league losing billions of Korean Won year over year.
It’s at the point where financial experts fear the LCK may collapse entirely if they don’t diversify their revenue streams, with actual profitability of the league taking a massive dip in 2024.
Though it wasn’t exactly profitable in 2022 or 2023, 2024 was a huge down year and saw the biggest losses in the LCK’s history. And it’s hard to imagine things have changed much in 2025.
League of Legends esports continue to break viewership records, with the LCK being more popular than ever this year and seeing over 2 million concurrent viewers on the biggest matches. However, that viewership and those eyes on the league isn’t translating into profit.
Experts fear LCK may collapse
League of Legends went through massive restructuring across almost every pro league going into 2025, with Riot trying to find ways to make every pro league more sustainable. And, now that the financial reporting for the LCK is public, we’ve gotten a peek at part of the reason why.
The LCK Corporation’s reported losses are as follows for each 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 much of that being incurred in 2024 alone.
Additionally, total sales went from 27.9 billion KRW (~$19,363,000 USD) in 2022 all the way down to 11.4 billion KRW (~$7,912,000 USD) in 2024. The amount of total revenue has been cut by almost two thirds, a massive blow to the greater league.
It’s worth mentioning that Riot has 100% ownership of the LCK corporation, and that them reporting losses could still mean Riot’s making money off the league. Much of this could be attributed to the LCK softening operational costs for participating teams by reducing the membership fees and providing profit sharing so the teams they have can stay afloat.
This is even factoring in that the LCK hosts T1, arguably the biggest esports team in the world in terms of popularity.
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesHowever, 2024’s massive blow can be attributed to their streaming exclusivity deal with Chinese platform Huya falling through, a deal that had been financially stimulating the LCK for years.
They also held Valorant Champions Seoul in the LoL park arena, incurring operational costs that were reported on the LCK Corporation’s financials. There’s a chance that this was profit for Riot even though it technically has to be reported as a loss.
So, while it’s not like the LCK is going to immediately collapse, experts fear that this path isn’t sustainable.
“Although the influence of e-sports is growing, they haven’t found a revenue structure yet, so the LCK teams that have been investing for years are having a very difficult time, and as a result, the costs that Riot Korea has to bear are increasing,” reads a report from South Korean financial publication DealSite.
And, with viewership trending down for most leagues outside of the LCK after Riot’s restructuring, there’s a chance other parts of the world have it even worse.
