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Riot Games released League of Legends more than a decade ago, in 2009. What started as something inspired by the Warcraft 3 mod Defence of the Ancients (DOTA) has now turned into a massively popular MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) all around the world. Thanks to an ever-changing meta, a thriving esports scene, and a large player base, the game seems to be still going strong. However, with Riot Games adding more titles including the popular FPS Valorant, many wonder if League of Legends has stagnated. Let’s look at how many people are playing League of Legends in 2022 and how the numbers have grown over the years.
Number of people playing League of Legends (September 2022)
According to Activeplayer, there are currently 151 million users playing League of Legends with a monthly gain of almost a million players. The player base hasn’t seen the same growth as before but there are some fluctuations every month. Notably, the player count tends to go up when URF (Ultra Rapid Fire), ARURF (All Random Ultra Rapid Fire) gamemodes go live and around the time the League of Legends World Championship or, as it is colloquially known as, Worlds is played. League of Legends esports tends to draw in massive viewership which also spikes player numbers. According to Esports Charts, last years Worlds drew in a whopping 174 million viewers. Meanwhile, URF has been one of League of Legnds' most popular game modes released till date with fans constantly asking Riot to bring it back.
The League of Legends development team keeps the game fresh with new champion releases, reworks to older champions, new game modes, events and cosmetics. Looking at the player base growth over the years, League of Legends is still growing, albeit at a slower pace. Two years after its release, the player count stood at 11.5 million before more than doubling in 2012 to over 32 million. League of Legends saw a massive spike in player count from 2012 to 2017, rising to a total of 100 million players.
