27 million people play League of Legends each day

By Ryan Fleming January 27, 2014

27 million people play league legends day winter championship of — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Each day, Riot Games’ League of Legends has an average of more than 27 million people log in and play, according to a statement given to the Wall Street Journal. That number has more than doubled since October 2012, when the game touted 12 million users per day. Riot also confirmed that it has seen spikes of 7.5 million users playing at the same time.

League of Legends is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game (MOBA) whose income is driven by microtransactions. In 2013, the game recorded the second most revenue for an online game, with $624 million. Although League of Legends was a distant second behind CrossFire’s $957 million, Riot’s game was nearly $200 million ahead of the third biggest game, Dungeon Fighter Online.

League of Legends is also one of the most popular eSports games, and it frequently dominates online tournaments in terms of viewership. In October 2013, the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship attracted 32 million people over the course of the event, with 8.5 million watching concurrently at peak times. By comparison, 2012’s Season 2 Championship attracted a total of 8.2 million, with 1.1 million watching at the same time during peak hours.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…

Gaming

League of Legends’ new Arena mode emphasizes bite-sized, intense action

A screenshot of League of Legends Arena

League of Legends’ 5v5 MOBA mode is one of the most iconic multiplayer setups in gaming. It attracts millions of players every day, and millions of dollars are spent throwing and giving rewards for tournaments based on that formula. That’s why it’s exciting when Riot Games occasionally experiments with new modes that modify the core concept of League of Legends in unique ways. The latest mode to do this is the 2v2v2v2 Arena, which is coming to the game as part of this summer’s Soul Fighter event.

Channeling the energy of modes like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s Gunfight (a personal favorite of mine), Arena is a mode that distills that classics formula into quicker, more intense matches in smaller arenas. As someone who likes the world and lore of League of Legends but is hesitant to put in the hours required to learn and master the 5v5 competitive esport part of League of Legends, I was particularly intrigued when I got to check out what Riot Games has in store with Arena mode ahead of its release.
How Arena works
Arena matches consist of four teams of two players. Those teams will be able to blind ban certain Champions for all players in their match, but players on two different teams can still pick the same Champion. Before they fight, though, there’s a Shop Phase reminiscent of games like Teamfight Tactics or Valorant. Over 45 seconds, players will have the time to purchase Augments that can enhance their Champion and Juices that give round-specific boosts. After every player has bought what they want (or that timer runs out), the Combat Phase begins.

Gaming

The Mageseeker blends League of Legends lore with Hades’ action

Sylas attacking with chains surrounded by purple magic

When I sat down to try a demo of The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story at PAX East, I was dropped straight into an escape mission. At first, I fumbled with switching between casting spells and dodging attacks from enemy mages. By the end, I juggled between at least four magical abilities while dashing around to survive. It was a hectic experience, but one that perfectly complemented its storytelling.

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story | Official Gameplay Trailer

Gaming

Three League of Legends indie game spinoffs will release in 2023

Key art highlighting Riot Forge's three League of Legends spinoffs in 2023.

Riot Forge, Riot Games' indie publisher focused on making League of Legends spinoffs with smaller teams, unveiled its 2023 lineup today. We learned about The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story, an action RPG from the developers of indie gem Moonlighter, for the first time, and Riot Games revealed more specific release windows for Convergence: A League of Legends Story and Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story.
The first of these games to release will be Digital Sun's The Mageseeker, which comes out this spring. The game focuses on League of Legends champion Sylas, revolutionary fighting back against the kingdom of Demacia for taking advantage of mages. We only see a little bit of gameplay in Riot Forge's 2023 lineup trailer, but it definitely looks somewhat similar to Moonlighter with its isometric action centered around Sylas' change and magical abilities.
Riot Forge Games 2023 | The Year Ahead Trailer
The next Riot Forge game to come out will be Double Stallion Games' Convergence sometime this summer. The game is a 2D platformer with time-based platforming and combat that follows Ekko, a character you'll recognize if you watched Arcane. Finally, Song of Nunu will launch this fall. It's a third-person adventure game from Tequila Works, a developer that's mastered that formula with titles like Rime and Gylt. It follows a young boy named Nunu and his yeti Willump as they search for Nunu's mother, so this game is bound to pack an emotional punch.
While only two games have come from Riot Forge so far, its catalog of games finally seems to be ramping up this year. The Mageseeker, Convergence, and Song of Nunu will all be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch over the course of 2023.