League of Legends is so lucrative, its maker is in no rush to release another game
LoL has more than 103 million active players and a rumoured US$1 billion in annual revenues, allowing Riot Games, its Chinese-owned, Los Angeles-based creator, to take its time to find its next project
More than 100 million people play League of Legends each month, making it the world’s top PC game.
But the milestone, which was reached sometime in the last year and announced earlier this month, does little to settle questions about developer Riot Games’ pace of growth and when it might finally launch a second game.
The 10-year-old Los Angeles company continues to scuttle ideas for a follow-up to the hit, a multiplayer online battle arena game in which two opposing teams compete. Riot also is considering transforming its role at the centre of e-sports – a position it has described as “awkward”.
“League of Legends for so many people has become a shared language and passion and that to us is really motivating,” says co-founder Marc Merrill, Riot’s president. “The next 10 years, we want to do more of the same, make other interesting games and continue to grow and invest in League.”
Merrill and Riot chief executive Brandon Beck say it is for others to judge if the company’s growth has been satisfactory. Last month, 103 million people played League of Legends; the last time the company disclosed player numbers, in January 2014, that figure was 67 million.