Last year, the League of Legends Championship Series partnered with Nielsen to develop more transparent viewership measurements for LoL esports. Now, both parties are adding a new layer to their partnership in the form of a rating system being used in esports for the first time.

LCS is working with Nielsen to develop the first-ever “live+” measurement system for esports broadcasts. Live+ ratings look at viewership for live broadcasts and related on-demand or replay video afterwards to calculate the total audience for the programming content, still leveraging the new industry standard for viewership reporting — average minute audience (AMA).

Head of Esports Partnerships and Business Development for North America at Riot Games Matthew Archambault had this to say about the expansion of the LCS' partnership with Nielsen: 

“Nielsen is spearheading great innovation in the esports space and LCS is honored to be a partner in this unprecedented effort. Reliable, accurate viewership data and analytics are critical to anyone in media, and Nielsen’s methodologies, demonstrated through traditional broadcast media, are the gold standard. We’re excited to be able to bring these insights to our LCS partners and the larger community, further defining the engagement of our fans and that of the esports community." 

This metric will measure live and on-demand LCS viewership more accurately than ever before, and will parallel Nielsen’s live+ TV ratings, which aggregate live and on-demand viewership within a designated time window to present a more complete picture of TV viewership engagement. Live+ metrics will help us understand LCS viewership better on its own and provide a direct way to compare with both live and time-shifted televised content — another first in esports.