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While proven to have the most toxic player base of any gaming community, League of Legends remains one of the most popular games in the world.
The MOBA game focused on 5v5 combat brings in millions of League of Legends monthly players. Yet people still ask: is League of Legends dying?
The short answer is no. League of Legends is not a dying game. Contrarily, the League of Legends player base is one of the largest in the gaming industry.
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What Keeps League of Legends Current?
With so many new games on the market, it seems like you hear about a video game for a few years max, and then it slips into the ether to be forgotten.
But League of Legends has managed to stay current since 2009, and there are a few reasons for its success.
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The League of Legends Esports Scene
First up is the Esports scene, which makes sense when you ask yourself, “What is the one thing all long-term popular games have?”
Nine out of ten times, that answer is it has an esports scene. When a game has esports teams playing it, it makes more people want to play it when they see professional players participating.
Pro players participating in League of Legends tournaments worldwide drive an active community where new players have stars and veteran players to look up to.
There’s even a League of Legends World Championship where only the best players compete for glory – and the prize money, of course.
Combine that with how competitive the game is, and you get all the try-hards out in force, grinding away for hundreds of hours to try to become the best. And that is the perfect recipe for keeping a game popular for years.
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The constant release of New Content and Patches
The next main reason that League of Legends has stayed current is constant updates and routine patches.
Riot Games consistently releases new things, such as new champions and bug fixes, and the developer does everything possible to improve the game for its player base.
Gamers love a company that takes care of them and constantly ensures their game is up to date, free of bugs, and fair to play. Take care of your players, and they will take care of you.
Loading Times Are Usually Quick
Another thing that helps keep League of Legends popular is how quickly you can hop into a match with people.
Sure, there will be times when it may take some time, even as long as a minute, to find a match, but on average, you are in a match getting ready to play within 20 seconds.
Nobody wants to wait forever to play a game, so having match loading times so quick, League of Legends keeps players queuing up with their friends to prove to their opponents they are the superior players.
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Are you playing on a public computer? See how to log out of LoL here.
Different Play Modes Keeps Things Fresh, and New
Games that stay stagnant rarely stand the test of time, as players get bored quickly and move on to other games to keep their attention. Riot Games knows this and thus is continually introducing new play modes to League of Legends to keep players entertained.
You can play Clash, TFT, URF, and ARAM on top of regular Summoner Rift games. So that is an additional four game modes besides the usual casual and ranked Summoner Rift games.
Kind of hard to get bored with that many options, which is why League of Legends keeps millions of players playing each month.
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Popular spin-offs
It doesn’t hurt that Riot Games has created two popular spin-offs to the original game set in the same fictional universe.
The first one is League of Legends: Wild Rift for iOS and Android, which has taken on a life of its own. The mobile game also has international tournaments with prize pools and has become a major player in the esports industry.
The second one is Legends of Runeterra, a card game similar to Blizzard Games’ Heartstone, which has also become incredibly popular.
So even when you’re not up for a 5v5 high-tempo match on your beast of a gaming PC, you can still enjoy the game on mobile or drop in for a couple of casual games of cards while staying in the same universe.
Ability to Connect With Friends
Finally, League of Legends makes it easy to connect with friends and enjoy casual and try-hard games.
The UI is easy to use; you can add players you enjoyed playing with as friends, chat with them, and invite them to play with you. You can use the in-game voice chat without booting up Discord or another app to speak with your friends.
An active Community and Content Creation
The active community of content creators also makes sure that the game stays alive on social media and streaming services such as YouTube and Twitch.
A huge number of people turn in to watch their favorite gamers compete on these platforms each month, which also helps boost the player numbers and keeps LoL on top.
Add to these things, such as fan art, merchandise, and more, and it’s easy to see why LoL remains in the biggest game category in the industry.
League of Legends Player Stats
If you do not believe League of Legends is still popular, here are some stats pulled from activeplayer.io, a website that collects live player data.
As of this writing, League of Legends currently has around 150 million registered players, with an average of 10 million people playing daily.
Out of the 150 million registered League of Legends players, 117 million play monthly, making it the 4th most-played game in the world. So, League of Legends is not dying but has become the new favorite game of many new players in recent years.
League of Legends Player Count:
| Month | Active Players |
|---|---|
| Last 30 Days | 150,908,760 |
| September 30, 2022 | 151,102,355 |
| August 30, 2022 | 150,130,018 |
| July 30, 2022 | 149,906,790 |
| June 30, 2022 | 151,281,358 |
| May 30, 2022 | 152,951,432 |
| April 30, 2022 | 152,366,661 |
| March 30, 2022 | 153,312,677 |
| February 28, 2022 | 155,556,231 |
| January 30, 2022 | 153,307,011 |
| December 30, 2021 | 154,981,226 |
| November 30, 2021 | 150,367,689 |
| October 30, 2021 | 149,255,912 |
| September 30, 2021 | 151,297,082 |
| August 30, 2021 | 151,851,490 |
| July 30, 2021 | 153,315,685 |
| June 30, 2021 | 151,636,687 |
| May 30, 2021 | 146,868,113 |
| April 30, 2021 | 143,802,678 |
| March 30, 2021 | 145,603,491 |
| February 28, 2021 | 142,823,579 |
| January 30, 2021 | 140,949,027 |
| December 30, 2020 | 146,507,849 |
| November 30, 2020 | 142,217,348 |
| October 30, 2020 | 118,786,886 |
Why do People Think League of Legends is Dying?
For the same reason, people on the internet will ask if any game is dying out. Maybe it took some time for their match to find people to play with.
Perhaps they are trolling on forums to spark outrage from players who have dedicated thousands of hours to the game. And quite possibly, they just don’t realize that League of Legends is bigger than ever.
Regardless of why they think League of Legends is dying out, the game shall continue to grow despite some people’s attempts at getting people to stop playing.
Let’s be honest, though. With how toxic League is, it can be surprising that so many people play this online game, but where else will you get such an intense playing experience?
Will League of Legends Die in the Future?
If we go based on how League of Legends has been growing in the last two years, no, League of Legends will not die out any time soon.
Eventually, it may die out as everything must end in the far-flung future, but in the near future, League of Legends will likely keep growing and dominating the MOBA field.
Conclusion
League of Legends is one of the most popular titles ever to exist and will continue to dominate the gaming world for years. It’s an exciting game that has managed to stay fresh and offer a new-player experience for various reasons.
The constant release of new content, high-stakes international gaming tournaments, a huge (though somewhat toxic) player base with enough new players and old players to keep it running, and game developers who fix bugs, ensure that LoL is not going anywhere soon.
If you enjoyed this article, check out some of my other League of Legends articles – fx this one about leveling up fast. Until next time, happy gaming!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jan has played video games since the early 1980s. He loves getting immersed in video games as a way to take his mind off stuff when the outside world gets too scary. A lifelong gamer, the big interest led to a job as a lecturer on game sound at the University of Copenhagen and several written articles on video games for magazines.