League of Legends is a game that’s been around for 12 whole years. Since 2009, it has dominated the MOBA sphere alongside its counterpart DOTA 2.
Throughout all these years, League grew exponentially. From mere thousands to hundreds of millions of players. However, as with any longstanding game, people have begun to fear that League might be a dying game.
In this article, we will detail whether or not that is true. It is easy to answer with a blunt yes or no, but then it wouldn’t be an article, now would it? We will check out moments where it might have been confirmed and then look at the general situation.
So, without further ado, let’s begin!
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Rocky Moments
League of Legends experienced stable growth in player activity from 2009. To around 2018. There were some ups and downs, but everything seemed to be going fine for League in general.
With a peak of 113 million players, the game seemed unstoppable and unrivaled by any other market. And that was as true as ever. DOTA 2 only ever amassed about ten or so million players monthly, with something less than a million concurrently playing during the day.
On the other hand, League of Legends had almost 6 million players concurrently playing – a number which only seemed to be rising.
In 2019., in April, to be precise, League of Legends suffered a considerable dip in the player base. It lost over 23 million active players in one month, with the concurrent player count dropping by over 1.1 million. It was a shocking moment for the community, which feared that the end might be near.
Throughout the coming months, League continued to drop, eventually reaching its three-year low of 74 million monthly players. 2 Months later, it reached its three-year low in concurrent players, which sat at only around 3 million players. DOTA 2, on the other hand, was breaking Steam records at the time.
Alongside Counter-Strike, Valve’s games seemed to be making a huge resurgence and presence on the online multiplayer video-game market.
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The Comeback
With the new Season in 2019., League of Legends started picking up again. The player count slowly increased and healed back to its former glory. Between September 2019. and April 2020. League reached a whopping 130 million total monthly players, well above their January 2019. Count.
However, a new drop came along, and the player base eventually dropped back at around 90 million. From that point onwards, however, League has once again grown. The concurrent daily player peak is now at a whopping 11 million, almost four times as much from its lowest point.
The total player base is not 130 million, but it is almost there, sitting comfortably at around 125. League of Legends continues to experience drops here and there with each passing month. This is just a natural state of things with a game that has been around for as long as League did.
Some Other Reasons for Dropping
League of Legends has recently made some questionable decisions. The latest Champion releases are definitely the most significant issue people have with the game. Everything is unbalanced, overtuned, and broken, resulting in a degraded gameplay experience. If Riot gets back on track and starts listening to the community, I am confident that the player base will increase exponentially. People are making huge exoduses for new games with more responsible developers. Riot has a duty towards its community to deliver a product worthy of them, but it seems that they have lost hearing in recent years.
Conclusion
So, is League dying? Well, no. It is alive and well and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I remember when I started playing in 2013. When I was more than sure that the game would die by 2020. Now, it’s 2022, and we’re still here, so that should tell you everything you need to know. Keep on playing as long as you’re entertained, as League isn’t going to leave any time soon.
I hope you’ve found this list informative and fun to read, and I wish you all the best on the Summoner’s Rift!
