League of Legends is one of the most popular games in the world and has turned into the biggest esport in the world. The game has gone from a small idea into a billion-dollar giant in the space of a decade. Along with that comes millions of players from across the globe playing hundreds of thousands of LoL matches each day. The game has continued to grow in popularity as the game has reached a wider audience from South Korea, China, North America, and many other destinations across the globe.

Join us as we look at how the League of Legends player count has grown over the years, exploring how popular LoL is, which region it is most popular in, and more. 

LoL Live Player Count & Player Growth

While it’s not the only factor, one of the major factors for the mass growth of League of Legends is its extremely successful esports scene. LoL esports has set some of the biggest records in the industry, packing out stadiums, collaborating with the biggest stars in the entertainment business, and much more. League of Legends esports can be watched from around the world, with millions of fans striving to become the next Faker or perhaps one day go up against him which has been the case for so many of the newer modern stars who watched Faker while they were growing up and preparing to be a pro-player themselves.

But first, if you’re wondering about the League of Legends live player count, let’s take a look at that statistic. According to activeplayer.io, there are currently 1,082,232 players playing League of Legends right now at the time of writing. There are very few games in the world where they are consistently getting over 1 million players concurrently playing the game, but this is the League of Legends current player count. On top of that, over 130 million players are playing League of Legends every month. 

But what about the growth of League of Legends over the years? There is no doubting the popularity of LoL, it has gone from a small game to a global giant in the gaming industry, with the player count increasing almost every year. Let’s take a look at how League of Legends has grown since its launch in 2011 according to wecoachgg:

• 2024: 132 million
• 2023: 151 million
• 2022: 152 million
• 2021: 149 million
• 2020: 137 million
• 2019: 118 million
• 2018: 75 million
• 2017: 100 million
• 2014: 65 million
• 2012: 32 million
• 2011: 15 million

The height of the League of Legends popularity came between the 2021 and 2022 seasons which was impressive considering the world was coming out of the thick of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Dota 2 vs League of Legends player count

While the Dota 2 and League of Legends players consistently take shots at each other on social media, the statistics only favors one game and that is League of Legends. League of Legends has over a million concurrent players playing at a single time, while Dota 2 doesn’t come close at just over 500,000 active players at the time of writing this article. 

The active players do not make for a great comparison either, with League of Legends having over 130 million players over a thirty-day span, while Dota 2 can only bring in 12 million, which is three million less than the overall amount of players League of Legends had in their launch year of 2011. 

Let’s take a closer look at the stats between the two games:

Community Opinion on LoL Player Count

The community sentiment around League of Legends is that they wish Riot would release the information on a more frequent basis. In 2021, fans were treated to a cool stat that League of Legends reached a new monthly record of 180 million players. Though many complained that this statistic factored in other Riot Games modes within the League of Legends world such as Teamfight Tactics and Legends of Runeterra, which was an extremely popular mode around that time. 

One player claims that League of Legends is dead in North America, so we did some research to see if their claims remain true in 2025. According to activeplayer, which showcases the League of Legends player count by country, North America does not feature in the top regions, and you’ll have to scroll right to the bottom to see them featured.

Overall, it’s very difficult to scope how popular League of Legends is considering most statistics from China are not made available, meaning millions of players do not feature on this list. The game is still in a very good state, and fans should have no worries that League of Legends is dying or anything. The esports side is only getting stronger, breaking record after record each year. This years League of Legends World Championship featured a collaboration with the extremely popular rock band Linkin Park. 

The 2025 League of Legends esports scene is currently ongoing, with all five major regions beginning their regular season campaigns as the push towards the first of three international events this year commences.