Arena Mode 2024: Return Date, Changes & More Details

Riot Games announced that fan-favorite Arena mode will be returning to the League of Legends client in May 2024. In its 8th April Dev Update video, Riot Games acknowledged that despite Arena's play hours decreasing over the course of its run, it was overall successful. As a result, the publisher is making some improvements to the game mode to extend its longevity and giving it some extra variety.

Here are some of the changes lined up for Arena mode in May 2024.

Changes Slated for Arena Mode LoL: May 2024

Riot Games' goal with Arena mode is to allow players to experiment with daring and crazy item build paths that can one only dream of buying in Summoner's Rift. Riot called Arena mode, a game mode dedicated to "dreamers and memers."

The first change is that Riot Games is increasing the lobby size from eight to 16 players, meaning eight teams. Talking about this, it said, "We want each game of Arena to be a little different from the last, but still competitive. So increasing the amount of teams means that you shouldn't be able to see the same pairs of champions over and over again."

The next change is a substantial one to the item system in this game mode. Riot will be introducing a new item class called "Prismatic." The publisher said, "Prismatic items are build defining in a way that should shape future build decisions during a match of Arena. For example, the Demon King's Crown increases your basic stats by a lot. But here's the fun part, it increases each round you win, but if you lose a round, you actually lose more than you gain."

Third, the way players get items in Arena mode has also undergone changes. Players will no longer be able to purchase items from the shop and will have to "actually gamble" using anvils to purchase some items at a lower cost.

Riot also noted that it is still experimenting on Arena's next form and will be gathering feedback from the players to work on it further. A new blog will be out next week, which will go into detail about the changes to Arena mode, said the devs.