Media football leagues have taken over their own corner of livestreaming. These new, hybrid leagues have expanded across the globe, attracting millions of viewers from the Americas and Europe. Three of the most popular media football leagues in 2025 are the Kings League — which undoubtedly kickstarted this phenomenon, the Baller League, and The Icon League. Streams Charts has collated the viewership statistics of these three leagues’ Spring 2025 seasons to compare and contrast the leading media leagues in 2025.
The Kings League is the forefather of the media football league craze; created by Ibai “Ibai” Llanos and Gerard Piqué, the league expanded to various new regions in 2025, cementing a massive global viewership. Collectively, regional leagues and interregional events have accumulated over 130M Hours Watched (HW) for the Kings League in 2025. For detailed results of individual events in 2025, check out our previous Kings League 2025 article.
On a global scale, the Kings League leads the way. However, in the European market where the Baller League and The Icon league are active, things are not so clear-cut. These two circuits entered the scene later, but have still managed to find strong viewership in Germany and the UK. While the Kings League continues to expand around the globe, the Baller League and The Icon League are proving the market is not yet saturated, and are continuing to find popularity.
For spring 2025, the Kings League Italy received the most watch time of all its European counterparts. While the original Spanish circuit reached a higher Peak Viewers (PV) count and the French circuit earned a much higher Average Viewers (AV) metric, the Italian circuit emerged victorious as the only Kings League circuit in 2025 – aside from Brazil – to reach over 10,000,000 HW.
Of the three compared circuits, which represent the most-watched circuit for each brand, the Kings League Italy was the only event to receive significant international viewership. The Italian event was supported by strong Spanish, French, and Portuguese-speaking (including Brazilian) audiences, which contributed roughly 35% of the event’s PV.
The second season of The Icon League earned 7.14M Hours Watched, drawing on a sizable average concurrent viewership. While it is normal for these media circuits to enjoy high viewership on debut and then quickly taper off in following seasons, The Icon League Season 2 experienced only a 7.5% drop in Average Viewers. For comparison, this post-debut drop has ranged from 15-30% for the other media leagues, with an outlier case even suffering from a 50% drop-off. Although the German league is new to the game, it has quickly found a place in a highly competitive market.
Leading the way for the brand, the inaugural Baller League UK Season 1 was not far behind the Kings League. The debut season of the Baller League’s British expansion was well-received, significantly outperforming the third season of its original German circuit. The Baller League United Kingdom is the only media football league operating in the country, giving it a head start to set itself as the market leader for the region.
Viewership results of the Baller League’s spring 2025 circuits
The original circuit, or Baller League Germany as it is now known, has faced increasing competition over the years, with two new large-scale competitors entering the scene. While the Baller League Germany has lost a significant amount of viewers year-on-year, the cumulative amount of German viewership for these media circuits is greater than ever.
The German market is the only region where all three major media football leagues compete directly with each other. The Kings League is the newest entrant to the region, and its reception has shown that the market may be softly capping out, at least for the moment. Compared to other Kings Leagues circuits, the Kings League Germany debut received the lowest HW, PV, and AV. Nevertheless, the German market for this kind of content is growing, regardless of the viewership shifts between competitors.
Currently, The Icon League leads the German market in all-leading metrics. The circuit is partly owned (20%) and supported by German content creator Elias “EliasN97” Nerlich. Elias is one of Germany’s most popular streamers, with over 2.15M Twitch Followers and 1.5M YouTube subscribers. He is undoubtedly the significant driving force behind the circuit’s viewership; in total, Elias' streams of The Icon league have made up 74% of the Season 2 watch time.
Although The Icon League is leading the German market, The Baller League and the Kings League both boast wider audiences globally. The media football league phenomenon has evolved from the original idea of the Kings League in Spain to a wide-spread spectacle which is catching on wherever football fans are.
The expansion of this new footballing flavour isn’t slowing down, either. The Kings League closed a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to launch their idea to the Middle East and Kings League co-founder Gerard Piqué recently announced that the Kings League is eyeing an expansion to the United States. Keep an eye on the Streams Charts socials and blog for the newest updates on this constantly-changing sensation.
