How Many Champions Are There in League of Legends?

Sadakshi Kalyan Ramun
Updated On: 
Highlights
League of Legends has a very diverse champion roster and has champions spanning five different roles and playstyles.
Renata Glasc was the latest champion that was released and Riot Games is planning to add three more champions before the end of the year.

League of Legends has a really versatile, vibrant, and diverse champion roster. Thanks to the wide variety of champions that are available for play, every match can play out differently and players often do not feel the monotony while playing League of Legends. Riot Games has always tried to keep it fresh while introducing new champions and every new one that gets released has a notable ability kit. Apart from regular patch updates and balance changes, Riot’s way of keeping the game afresh is by adding new champions to its ever-expanding lineup.

A Colorful Shuriman city

Riot Games said, “The main reason we continue to release new champs is to add new gameplay for people to engage with. For many players, new champions are like mini-expansions packs for League, and we always see huge playrates on new champions when they’re first released. Even if you don’t pick them up yourself, seeing new champs in your games adds more to learn and master.

There are currently 159 champions in League of Legends, with the latest one being the Chem Baronness Renata Glasc, who was released in February 2022. League of Legends was released with 40 champions initially in two stages: Alpha and Beta.

Which champions were a part of the Alpha Stage?

A total of 17 champions were released during the Alpha stage of the game which was between February and 10th April 2009, right before the Beta stage.

Ashe

The champions were:

  • Alistar

  • Annie

  • Ashe

  • Fiddlesticks

  • Jax

  • Kayle

  • Master Yi

  • Morgana

  • Nunu

  • Ryze

  • Sion

  • Sivir

  • Soraka

  • Teemo

  • Tristana

  • Twisted Fate

  • Warwick

Which champions were released in the Beta Stage?

The other 23 champions were released during the Beta stage of the game, including the Closed and Open betas. The official launch of League of Legends was on 27th October 2009.

League of Legends Amumu
  • Amumu

  • Anivia

  • Blitzcrank

  • Cho’gath

  • Corki

  • Dr. Mundo

  • Evelynn

  • Gangplank

  • Heimerdinger

  • Janna

  • Karthus

  • Kassadin

  • Katarina

  • Malphite

  • Nasus

  • Rammus

  • Shaco

  • Singed

  • Taric

  • Tryndamere

  • Twitch

  • Veigar

  • Zilean

In 2020, in a Champion Roadmap, Riot said it was important for all players to get at least one new champion in their respective role per year so that they have something to try and add to their champion pool.

It initially said, “With that goal, we felt it was important to try and release at least six new champions a year—one for each position, with the exception of mid lane, where we’re targeting two. Mid-lane is the most popular role in League, and mid-lane assassin players are looking for something quite different than mid-lane mage players. Since so many people enjoy mages and assassins, we’re aiming to release a champion for both audiences every year.

However, in September 2021, Lead Producer of Champions Ryan “Reav3” Mireles said the company was not able to hit the mark when it came to releasing six champions. In the League of Legends Season 2022 Opening Day livestream, Mireles said, “Last year, our goal was to release one champion for each lane except the middle one, which was supposed to get two. When we planned to release champions for this year, we realized that we couldn’t have the same goal for 2022 if we wanted everyone to have the right amount of time and attention dedicated. So we’re going to slow down a bit.

Crystal Rose Zeri

With that being said, in 2022 Riot has already released two new champions - an attack-damage carry (ADC) and a support champion. Both Zeri and Renata Glasc have quite a significant player base and they have interesting ability kits. Additionally, three new champions will be joining the League of Legends roster in Season 12.

Renata

Riot Games revealed that the next champion to grace the Summoner’s Rift would be a jungler from the Void. This jungler, who is yet to join the League of Legends roster, seems to have been leaked ahead of the official announcement. The jungler is supposedly called Bel'Veth, the Void Empress and has been teased by Riot Games.

Void artwork

Apart from Bel’Veth, the League of Legends player base will see the release of a non-traditional bot-laner and also a Shuriman top-laner before the end of the year. So if all goes according to plan, League of Legends will have 162 champions before the end of Season 12.



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Sadakshi has been a gamer throughout her life and has followed League of Legends since Season 3, immediately falling in love with the esports scene. Bringing in her print journalism experience, she focuses on content that is both informative and innovative. While her heart still remains with League, her love for competition has pushed her to explore other titles such as Valorant and Apex Legends.

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