Insane ratings in the Kings League debut
In Spain there was no LaLiga action to kick off 2023, but a new competition took advantage of that to entertain hundreds of thousands who were hungover at home after New Year’s Eve.
We’re talking about the Kings League, Gerard Piqué’s new project which we introduced briefly to you in late November when it was announced ‘Chicharito’ Hernández would take part.
After drafting the players on the 27th December and with barely any time to train, nobody was sure what to expect. But it definitely didn’t disappoint.
There were 6 consecutive matches that took place in Barcelona in a spectacular 7-aside indoor pitch, that included a massive screen under the stands which the referees could use to consult the VAR (which they did). Although in the Kings League it’s not the refs that decide when to use it but rather the teams. They each have one use of the VAR which is renewed as long as they’re right and the referee has to overturn his decision.
Each match was 40 minutes long (20 per half) and kick off consisted on both teams sending their quickest player to intercept the ball at the halfway line. A rule that will very likely change for the upcoming games given the dangerous clashes some players suffered.
It’s also important to point out that there are no draws and victories are counted by wins, rather than by adding 3 points. If there is a draw after 40 minutes, then there’s a 1 vs 1 penalty shoot-out. The player starts at the halfway line and has to drive the ball forward to try and dribble past the goalkeeper or shoot whenever he can find a gap to do so.
Even though these shoot-outs never took place given no game ended with an equal scoreline in the first matchday of the season.
These are the current standings:
Power-Ups in football
The real game changer of this competition is the power-up cards, or “secret weapons” as they’re called in the Kings League, that each team have at their disposal to activate only once and at anytime, during the match. Before the game starts, both coaches select an envelope randomly that includes a card with a perk.
At the moment there are only 5 different power-ups: a penalty kick, 1 minute during which scoring a goal counts double, 2 minutes during which an opposition player is sent off, stealing your opponents card and a joker which can be used as any of the cards already mentioned.
All of these boosters are repeated except for the last two which only include one copy of each given they are highly advantageous.
So you’d think the chances for a team to get one of those cards is extremely low, right? Well, it turns out they were both activated in the very first match of the day! Iker Casillas’ team 1K were winning 3-2 when their opponent Rayo de Barcelona activated their joker card and asked for a penalty to try and draw the game. This was immediately blocked when 1K’s coach showed their "steal a card” power-up, allowing them to take the penalty instead, which they made the most of to win by 4-2.
LaLiga veterans
Another of the appealing features of the Kings League is the possibility of signing an 11th and 12th player, aside from the 10 that were drafted. They can be current professional players or retired ones, the only condition is that the 11th player has to be the same one for every match, whereas the 12th player (or wildcard) can change every week if desired.
In this first matchday we saw some recognisable ex-LaLiga players such as Raúl Tamudo and ‘Chicharito’ Hernández, both playing for Porcinos (who lost by the way). The other stand out names were World Cup winner Joan Capdevila who scored his teams winning goal, Sergio García, Joan Verdú, Alberto Bueno, Dídac Vilà, Carles Planas, Jonathan Soriano, Ferran Corominas, Javi Chica, Alberto Lopo, Carlos Castro and ex-goalkeeper Ricardo López.
As you can see, there’s a massive RCD Espanyol representation given the tournament takes place in Barcelona and so they’re more accessible for the different clubs.
Aside from Capdevila’s winner, Joan Verdú was chosen MVP of his match and players like Alberto Bueno, Sergio García or Ferran Corominas, also stood out. So it was extremely interesting to see the combination of veteran LaLiga players compete with other talented youngsters willing to leave everything on the pitch.
Other interesting footballers are bound to take part in the near future, such as Kun Agüero himself, who will debut for the team he’s president of (Kunisports) in one of the upcoming matches. Other familiar names like Javier Espinosa, Rubén de la Red or Víctor Sánchez are also expected to partake in the next matchday.
Better ratings than LaLiga?
All the matches were free to watch on the Kings League official Twitch channel, gathering an average audience of over 300,000 viewers during almost 7 hours of live streaming.
The peak number of unique viewers in their channel was of 412,000 spectators. But let’s not forget that most of the presidents of this league are actual streamers, so they would also show their games in their own channels. It’s been reported that the combined viewership reached a peak of over 700,000 (some sources even say over 800,000) while the prime time game at 9pm CET between Saiyans FC and Porcinos was taking place.
To put this into perspective, last Friday’s Getafe - Mallorca had 66,000 viewers in Spain, being the least watched LaLiga game of matchday 15. Whereas Barça - Espanyol had the biggest share with 610,000 viewers.
Naturally, it’s complicated to compare these figures because LaLiga numbers don’t include international audiences and they’re also shown through paid channels, whereas Twitch is free and can be watched from any part of the world.
So maybe a more accurate comparison would be with the only LaLiga match that was on free TV in Spain, which was the Cádiz - Almería. It congregated around 194,000 viewers.
This comes to show that the Kings League has gathered a lot of interest in its first day and that it’s a product with massive potential if Piqué can exploit it as wisely as he’s been doing until now.