League of Legends Player Count: These Are The Stats

League of Legends has one of the largest player base, but how many players are there really?

League of Legends has grown from a game made by a small indie studio, to the international phenomenon that exists today. From it, multiple songs, albums, and even a TV show have originated. Not to mention the explosion of esports it spearheaded. Filling stadiums and arenas all around the world is nothing new for the company and their tournaments and leagues.

None of these feats would be possible without the dedicated and in some cases fanatically loyal fanbase, though they would never admit it, that numbers in the millions. How many players does LoL actually have though, is it dying as some say, and how did its popularity progression go?

• Riot Please Delete Shaco From League of Legends
  

LoL Player Count: How Many Players Play League?

League of Legends was created by Riot Games, back in the day still a small Indy development studio, which took most of its inspiration from the original DotA. Since then, however, the game has progressed leaps and bounds. And Riot Games has grown into one of the biggest companies in the gaming landscape.

In 2024 League of Legends has had around 130 million players. The daily number of players fluctuates based on in-game events, esports tournaments, and more.

The biggest increase in player count League of Legends received when the TV series Arcane was released, in 2021, jumping from 115 million to 150 million in a few months, and culminating in the large player numbers in 2022.

League of Legends Player Count Progression

As we've said previously, League of Legends is the game that spearheaded the modern expansion of the MOBA genre, and as such, did not have the astronomical numbers it has now.

In fact, even League of Legends had to use systems such as refer-a-friend and other incentives, to get people to play the game.

The year 2011 was the first time Riot Games released the infographics regarding their player base, and since then they've been stingier and stingier with information. However, analytics indicate that 2017 was the year when League of Legends reached 100 Million monthly players.

It was in 2018 that the most significant drop in player numbers was seen. However, Riot Games went all out in 2019 celebrating the 10-year anniversary of League of Legends, and the incredibly successful Spirit Blossom event in 2020 brought back the player numbers, and then some.

Which LoL Region Has the Most Players

Without a doubt, the region with the most LoL players in it is China. Due to a large number of players, the Chinese server is actually split into 27 servers, spread around the entire country, and one new server, called the super server, where only Diamond-ranked and above players can join.

As it stands now, there are approximately 75 million LoL players in China, more than any other region by a lot. The second best is Korea, with half the numbers:

Currently, Japan is the weakest LoL region in both the player numbers and their eSports presence. One of the reasons listed for this is due to the cultural influence on gaming in Japan, where PC gaming is seen as something not for useful members of society, and PCs are meant for work, whereas consoles are meant for relaxation.

League of Legends Ranked Distribution

League of Legends players have influenced the game in such a way, that ranked games are the only thing that truly matters, and normal games are there just to practice new champions or silly builds. So, most LoL players play ranked, and gravitate around certain ranks more than others. 

As you can see, most League of Legends players congregate around the Silver and Gold ranks. And, when it comes to tanked itself, our recommendation is not to take it too seriously and just reach Gold for the free skin.

Is League of Legends Dying?

The short answer to this question, no matter what anyone says, is a resounding no! As with any game, League of Legends has its ups and downs, and Riot Games are currently working on multiple projects which have drawn them too thin, and some aspects of LoL, such as yearly events suffer a bit because of that.

All it takes tough is comparing League of Legends with its biggest in-genre competitors, and other popular games to see where it stands:

• League of Legends vs DotA 2 - DotA 2, the second-biggest MOBA in the world currently has around 11 million active monthly users. League of Legends, during its worst months, has 10 times those numbers in 2022
• League of Legends vs CS: GO - The most famous first-person shooter in the world, with the biggest eSport presence, is CS: GO. It currently has around 26 million active monthly users, with League of Legends surpassing those numbers by more than a 100 million a year ago.
  
• League of Legends vs Minecraft - Minecraft is not a game that focuses on multiplayer as much as the rest of these games do. It is however, the game that spearheaded its own genre, and is one of the most popular games in the world for more than a decade. It currently has an estimated 125 million players.  Even with these immense numbers, it still falls short of League of Legends by around 50 million players.
  

Now, if there is an inkling that any of these games are dying, then perhaps an argument could be made that League of Legends is dying as well. However, League of Legends numbers keep growing, gradually, and though they've slowed in recent times, the growth is nowhere near stagnating, and especially not dying.