Korean grandee Hanwha Life Esports (HLE) has finally decided on the vector of media development — the organization has officially struck a deal with the streaming brand Naver CHZZK.
The deal, admittedly, looks logical. As part of the agreement, fans will receive not just a dry broadcast, but an exclusive filling based on the intellectual property of the League of Legends roaster — in short, they plan to maximize engagement. By the way, this contract was the final chord in the distribution of forces: now absolutely all 10 LCK teams have an official “registration” on streaming sites. The current winners of the LCK Cup 2025 will be joined by names such as Nongshim Redforce and Hanjin BRION, all of whom are now under the banner of CHZZK. At the same time, the remaining seven teams, including heavyweights like T1, Gen.G and KT Rolster chose to go under the wing of SOOP.
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Naver CHZZK’s strategy in the esports streaming market
In fact, Naver CHZZK, which entered the market in the spring of 2024, is now aggressively gnawing off market share from competitors. The main battle, of course, is with the SOOP platform — this is the same rebranding of the good old AfreecaTV. Along the way, both platforms are trying to take the place of Twitch, which left in 2023 — the loss for the Korean market was painful, however. The fight for users is in earnest — both corporations have already booked the rights to show tournaments from Riot Games until 2030.
The interesting thing is that although SOOP has gained more teams in its pool, Naver has come from the other side. The publisher actually bought the naming rights to the legendary LoL PARK arena — CHZZK lounge areas now flaunt there and there is their fresh operating stand. The numbers confirm the scale of ambition and greatness. According to statistics, on November 9, 2025 — the day of the epic World Cup final between T1 and KT Rolster — the platform recorded an insane peak of 779,677 viewers. At the same time, the average online number for the last week has been around 131,000 people — quite impressive, in fact.
Let’s just say that Joo Kun-bom from Naver is optimistic. According to him, the partnership with Hanwha Life Esports will help create a full—fledged ecosystem where the community and content live not only during the broadcasts – ambitious, you must agree. In general, Chzzk intends to further strengthen its position in the esports niche through such alliances — and this is just the beginning. It looks like the Korean streaming platform has changed forever.
Competition between CHZZK and SOOP after Twitch’s departure from Korea
When the purple giant Twitch left South Korea in February 2024, the market froze in anticipation of chaos — the network appetites of regulators, which were 10 times higher than global price tags, simply drove the platform out of the country. However, a holy place is never empty. Naver, apparently, has been preparing for this for years, rolling out its Chzzk project. And here’s the result — two years later, this newcomer has not just caught on, but naturally dictates the rules of the game, leaving the market veterans far behind. At the moment, this is where the history of Korean esports is forged, especially if we are talking about League of Legends — viewing records are flying one after another.
Reasons for the closure of the Twitch platform in South Korea
Twitch’s escape was predictable, to be honest. The platform suffered for a long time: first, the Koreans turned off the cherished 1080p, then VOD archives went under the knife – audience loyalty was melting before our eyes. As a result, about 100 million hours of monthly views just “hung” in the air. The audience scattered everywhere: to YouTube Gaming, to the updated SOOP (good old AfreecaTV) and, of course, into the arms of Chzzk. The mass migration of top brands like 한동숙 has finally put a nail in the coffin of the purple brand in the region — the market has been reformatted at lightning speed.
Technical advantages and services of the CHZZK ecosystem
Admittedly, Chzzk immediately gave what Koreans are willing to pay for with time: honest 1080p at 60 FPS and a bit rate of 8 Mbit/s is top-notch, really. Plus, they returned full-fledged repeats of broadcasts, which was so lacking before. But the main trump card is Naver’s “portal magic”. Imagine: search, Naver Pay, communities, and shopping all rolled into one. Donations fly in instantly, and the search for new talents is built into the engine familiar to users. While SOOP relies on the dubious hangouts of streamers, Chzzk has turned into a sophisticated esports machine with an ideal mobile application.
An example, by the way, is very revealing: the July Esports World Cup 2025 LoL final gathered 538,000 people at Chzzk at the same time — it was a powerful blow to SOOP’s ambitions.
View statistics and audience coverage of the CHZZK platform
Since the beta was launched in December 2023, the Chzzk numbers have been like an adrenaline maniac’s cardiogram. By March 2024, the volume of views had doubled, and by the end of the year, the site had crossed the threshold of 100 million hours. Currently, the average online audience stands at 82 thousand people — there is only nothing left before AfreecaTV, some 35 thousand viewers are missing. Migrant streamers are generally covered in chocolate: The same 한동숙, playing LoL and Lost Ark, showed a 300% increase in AMA in early 2024 – incredible— you must agree.
| Platform | Watch Hours (2024 Peak) | Peak Viewers (2025) | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chzzk | 100M+ (peak) | 538K (LoL EWC) | 1080p, VODs, Naver ecosystem integration |
| SOOP | Stable ~80–90M | Below Chzzk | Strong streamer collaboration tools |
| Twitch (pre-exit) | ~100M | No longer relevant | Global audience (now lost) |
In the fight against SOOP, the advantage of Chzzk is obvious — it’s traffic from Naver search. Yes, SOOP is supported by the old guard and its “collabs”, but the future belongs to ecosystems. In 2026, both players received exclusives for the LCK Cup, but Riot Games seems to be more sympathetic to Chzzk in terms of esports partnership. The fight for every viewer is life and death — only one will survive in this market.
Guide to using the CHZZK platform for streamers
Are you planning to roll over to Chzzk? Note to the streamers: use the H.264 codec for stable images and immediately screw up Naver Pay — a 300% boost in donations and coverage is quite real. I advise viewers to download the mobile app specifically — personal recommendations work like clockwork there, and VOD highlights on League of Legends fly without brakes. The global interface in English is still under development, so focus on K-esports — here Chzzk is king and god. In short, just try to run the test stream and compare it with SOOP — the difference in quality is immediately visible as you go along.
