On October 15th, 2019, developer Riot Games celebrated a huge milestone. LOL hit the 10-year anniversary milestone. We gamers are an easily distracted bunch, with whatever is new and shiny this season holding the lion’s share of our attention. Still, League of Legends player count has remained consistent over the years, as the game soldiers on. It’s good to see that Riot isn’t simply sitting back on their laurels and that they’re continuing to give this fantastic MOBA all the support it deserves.
There have been countless rumors over the years that the daily player count is falling, the community overall is shrinking, or that the latest update broke the game for good. I’ve lost count over the years how many times I’ve heard that LoL is dying, or that for sure next year the game will be on the decline. This press release that went out for the 10-year anniversary should put your mind at ease that none of this is true.
So for all those claiming that League of Legends is declining in popularity, Riot has some cold hard facts for you to consider. LoL has 8 million daily players. Daily: not 8 million a month, or 8 million a year. Daily. How many other games in the world can claim that? 3? 4? And how many of those have a 10-year track record of success? Does anyone want to bet if Fortnite will be this successful five years from now?
Daily player count across platforms is probably the best stat for judging a game’s popularity, but it’s not the only one. It seems that every year League of Legends sets new viewership records during the World Championship, and 2019 was no exception. They put up some insane numbers here; it’s no wonder League of Legends has so many sponsors eager to partner up.
- 21.8 million Average Minute Audience during the 2019 League of Legends World Championship.
- 44 million Peak Concurrent Viewers. I mean, come on. Who can look at those numbers and still seriously think that League of Legends player count is declining? For comparison, the 2018 Superbowl was one of the most-watched television events of all time, with 103.4 million viewers, according to Variety.com.
- The LoL World Championships easily hit 100 million total viewers in 2019.
That number doesn’t tell the whole story, though. The Superbowl has the benefit of television contracts, where League of Legends is solely reliant on streaming. The Superbowl only had 3.1 million Peak Concurrent Streams, which is a drop in the bucket compared to League of Legends World Championship streaming to 44 million people.
And where the NFL may have something to worry about, with year-on-year declines in total viewership, League of Legends player count is still going strong. Its popularity is at least part of the reason that the Olympics are warming up to the idea of hosting esports right alongside traditional sports in 2022.
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