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Riot Games just released its monthly user numbers for its online video game, “League of Legends” and it is at a staggering 100 million. This effectively makes the MOBA the biggest video game title in the world, eclipsing titans like “World of Warcraft,” “Overwatch,” and “Defense of the Ancients 2.” Riot’s game has been a mainstay in the e-sports industry for several years now as well, but it would seem that the developers aren’t actually making any money from the events.
A lot of people play “LOL,” this is something that anyone who has ever been exposed to online gaming knows. However, it wasn’t until Riot released the actual numbers that people got to appreciate exactly how many play the game. As Forbes points out, Riot also made a similar revelation back in 2014 where it claimed that they had over 67 million monthly players, which many found hard to believe.
Two years on, the company behind the MOBA finally decided to update its previous report and it is proving to be quite the impressive development. The next biggest competitor that even comes close to threatening “LOL” is “DOTA 2,” which has monthly user count amounting to 13 million. That’s the kind of discrepancy that makes it clear which is the MOBA king.
In related news, Polygon’s Phil Kollar interviewed “LOL” co-founders Merrill and Brandon “Ryze” Beck, which revealed that Riot is not making much money from e-sport events featuring the game that they pay for. What’s more, neither of them cares.
“Yes, we’re still investing millions into esports without profit, but our goal with esports has always been to make a great player experience first,” Beck said during the interview. “Before Marc and I started Riot, we wanted to do an esports league - we were going to call it the ultimate gaming league (UGL). Even back then, the community blew us away with their response to early high-level competitive play and we responded to that passion, hoping to reward it with a high quality experience.”
