"League isn't dying and people telling so are wrong and toxic about the meta"

PaffWasTaken·May 20, 2018·37 votes·11,437 views

People saying such things lack a certain amount of logic

Even if League isn't "dying", it has been proved that its popularity is decreasing in a steadily increasing rate since less or more 2 or 3 three years ago, said rate being quite fast at the moment, hence why people might think the game is dying

Even if it has been several consecutive years that some people are expecting the game to die, those small groups were precedently composed of players who just got bored and found a better game. Today, even the "veterans" who've been playing since the start are questionning why they are even playing right now due to Riot's recent decisions who got quite questionnable.

Even if the amount of people joining kinda makes up for people leaving, a lot of the playerbase dosen't have fun playing anymore. Tell me, whats the point of a video game who isn't fun anymore for a vast part of the community and that is only going less and less fun?

I'm not saying the game is dying, not at all. Maybe it is, but thats not the point. the point is that people can't neglect the flagrant flaws that are appearing each months in the game and say "everything is fine, move along, people who don't enjoy it are haters". The game isn't doomed, the problem is that it has the potential to be easily ten times better for the majority of the players, but we aren't going in this direction at all.

79 Comments

RaoulMay 20, 201825 votes

As someone who has been around since Beta, I cant count how often league has been declared dying or dead.

"League will die because HoN is way better!" "League will die when DotA2 is released!" "League will die when HotS is released!" "League will die when Overwatch is released!"

Then the number guys "Most people stoped playing already!" (source: Dude, trust me!) "The playerbase is dropping because of X!" (source: Dude, trust me!)

Seriously, this game has been declared dead more times than Superman and Wolverine together...

pryda022May 20, 20181 votes

{quoted}

As someone who has been around since Beta, I cant count how often league has been declared dying or dead.

"League will die because HoN is way better!" "League will die when DotA2 is released!" "League will die when HotS is released!" "League will die when Overwatch is released!"

Then the number guys "Most people stoped playing already!" (source: Dude, trust me!) "The playerbase is dropping because of X!" (source: Dude, trust me!)

Seriously, this game has been declared dead more times than Superman and Wolverine together...

id have to say in the last year is the first time league player base is shrining rather then increasing. riot has mismanaged there game so hard the last 2-3 years. if blizzard owned league game would be in much better shape

RaoulMay 20, 20187 votes

Yeah, just look at WoW... do you really want that developement for LoL?

We wouldnt have items any more, because Blizzard would deem them too complicated for the casual player, unified leveling like HotS because Blizzard wouldnt want to leave the casuals behind... only plus side,w e would have more maps with some objectives, but no more SR.

Zero ShingetsuMay 20, 20183 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, just look at WoW... do you really want that developement for LoL?

We wouldnt have items any more, because Blizzard would deem them too complicated for the casual player, unified leveling like HotS because Blizzard wouldnt want to leave the casuals behind... only plus side,w e would have more maps with some objectives, but no more SR.

Doing away with items does HotS MASSIVE credit because it allows them to give each individual hero their own unique upgrade paths. I'd say HotS is actually more complex than League on that front. League, you get the same five or six items on pretty much everyone in every game. In HotS, every hero has ~19 options to choose from that are largely unique to that hero, meaning you have to learn what works best for ~300 possible combinations for every single hero individually. Further, you have to know how to counter each of those as you come up against them. Add to that the fact that each hero has a choice of two ultimates and I honestly don't see how you could say HotS was built without hardcore play in mind.

Unified leveling exists, by the way, not to "keep the casuals from being left behind", but to create more competitive games. HotS has Specialists, who specialize (haHA!) in clearing waves quickly, and their job is to earn the team experience. Meanwhile, the other four players can be skirmishing with the other team as early as level one. It means there's CONSTANT teamfighting, because there's never a point when you have to just dial it back and farm gold and levels. This means more exciting games across the board, according to the experience of myself, my wife, my brother-in-law, and all eight of my friends who play, bare minimum.

(By the way, putting all that aside, who cares if they WERE catering to casual players? Casuals are the vast majority of gamers. Online games require bulk spending to stay afloat. If not for casuals, most games wouldn't exist for very long. I know keeping out casuals and feeling like you have a "cool kids only" club is a staple of hardcore gaming, but you're stabbing yourself in the foot with that fancy club banner you're planting when you do that.)

KarunamonMay 21, 20182 votes

who cares if they WERE catering to casual players?

People who are not casual players and don't want their games dumbed down to the lowest common denominator? That was kinda a dumb question dude.

Zero ShingetsuMay 21, 20181 votes

{quoted}

People who are not casual players and don't want their games dumbed down to the lowest common denominator? That was kinda a dumb question dude.

Well you have to read it in context. That sentence was just a prefix to a greater point. If a game caters entirely to hardcores who want a grueling experience, it's going to have a vastly smaller player base, and Riot's consummate waste on their insane effort to make esports a "thing" outside of South Korea means they already had to sell out to Tencent, even with a big player base. You drop the casuals from this equation and League's servers probably aren't running today.

KarunamonMay 21, 20181 votes

You drop the casuals from this equation and League's servers probably aren't running today.

Most of the game's player base is in Asia, and quite honestly, League has absolutely nothing to offer the casual set that Heroes of the Storm doesn't offer better. This is probably the single most newbie/casual-hostile online game that exists today.

losdougradosMay 20, 20181 votes

Where did ghostcrawler come from?

PaffWasTakenMay 20, 201813 votes

Then the number guys "Most people stoped playing already!" (source: Dude, trust me!) "The playerbase is dropping because of X!" (source: Dude, trust me!)

Well, if you want concrete and trustable numbers who are not from twitch views, I got some pretty interesting graphs who comes from google's popularity trends themselves. Maybe they aren't really representative of the game state and maybe its a little silly to drop this source, but those numbers are efficient.

First, here is the graph showing League's popularity from the start and its "evolution" https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F04n3w2r

On this, we can clearly compare any trends in League's popularity since, well, almost forever

but let's focus on the Last 5 years, even if we can still see them in the previous graph

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F04n3w2r

It actually shows some serious trend, eh? In this period of time, we can see League's popularity at its peak three times: during the World championships for Season 3, 4, and 5, who were reputated to be seasons where the game both "started" to get globally known as THE most played game in the world and kept this title by being able to keep a "stable" and enjoyable game. but well, guess what? The game REALLY went down in popularity, by A LOT. The last championships didn't even peaked at 50% of the three previously mentionned championships! Presently, we are at a PEAK of popularity since the start of this year (hence, S8) and yet we are barely at the popularity level of the April fools... who took 7 years ago.

You wanted numbers? You got them. even if they are simple, they are efficient. You wanted a source? You got it. It barely took me 2 minutes to find actual and recently updated data who shows the game's decline. With deeper research, a lot more could be discovered. And let's not even talk about the fact that Riot has been "hiding" their data concerning the actual time played worldwide since almost the day where they claimed the throne as the most played game.

Edit: looks like the links barely works sometime and that you have to manually search for "League Of Legends" to get the data, sorry

Zero ShingetsuMay 20, 20184 votes

Numbers. I like it. I am upvoting.

SubdueMay 20, 20183 votes

Sometimes the analysis of the numbers is wrong. You're looking at League of Legends in a vacuum. If you compare it to other games in genre, it's still top dog, and has been for over a decade. Plus, you'll notice that the genre as a whole has been on a downtrend. Furthermore, it should be noted that League of Legends today still has higher results than the lifetime bests of its competitors, with the exception of a 2 month spike of Overwatch before it lost its hype.

https://i.imgur.com/Cuxi00W.png

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F04n3w2r,%2Fm%2F0dlkwn1,%2Fm%2F0128442n,%2Fm%2F06zd9hy,%2Fm%2F0ktmkks

WoonStruckMay 20, 20185 votes

The popularity of cigarettes globally as opposed to vapes doesn't mean they're better than vapes (just think pros/cons of both, not advocating either). Cigarettes are still considered "on their way out" even if they're "top dog".

At this point, League is only popular because its popular. Eventually people are going to realize the game isn't fun anymore and leave in droves. Don't know when that will be, but this game is definitely on its way out, especially with some of Riot's recent decisions...

All that you're really saying is that Riot can still milk a dead cow for a little while longer.

SubdueMay 21, 20181 votes

{quoted}

The popularity of cigarettes globally as opposed to vapes doesn't mean they're better than vapes (just think pros/cons of both, not advocating either). Cigarettes are still considered "on their way out" even if they're "top dog".

At this point, League is only popular because its popular. Eventually people are going to realize the game isn't fun anymore and leave in droves. Don't know when that will be, but this game is definitely on its way out, especially with some of Riot's recent decisions...

All that you're really saying is that Riot can still milk a dead cow for a little while longer.

Again, context is everything. You can't just look at the trend by itself and make claims like "Eventually people are going to realize the game isn't fun..." all of the games in the MOBA genre are in the same downward trend. Is it the genre as a whole that is losing its appeal? Is it just that updates in graphic expectations are taking its toll on a decade old game?

Where's the alternative game that you think is displacing League?

KarunamonMay 21, 20181 votes

Where's the alternative game that you think is displacing League?

Is it the genre as a whole that is losing its appeal?

I think your second statement answers the first: anything but MOBAs. If you plot topic searches against LoL, DOTA, and HotS, and then drop something like Fornite in there, you see that Fortnite is now more popular than any single moba has ever been at any point in its history.

I think the genre is slowly assuming its niche status. It'll never go away, partly because of the interest from Asia (where OG Starcraft is still a thing), but the growing days are over. That doesn't mean the game is dying - as long as it holds the interest in China/Korea/etc (and worth mentioning, the MSI finals we just had now hold the record for the most watched esports event ever thanks to China), it can go on practically indefinitely.

BattalionMay 21, 20181 votes

I posted this same things two months ago using google trends for related searches to show popularity and cycles of interest within tournament centric activities (such as the super bowl spiking at the same time every year with comparable interest, LCS lacks this pattern). I was told several times how illegitimate my post was using google trends and other methods. Though there's a reason Riot refuses to post current player statistics and active account counts.

Zero ShingetsuMay 20, 20184 votes

"The number guys" are often speaking from personal experience. IE friends lists disappearing, longer game queues, etc. Don't forget that data is gathered by research through practical experience. "The number guys" aren't citing statistics, but they're living them. Can't necessarily dismiss their claims just because Riot won't disclose its concrete numbers. (Interestingly, something games generally only do when their game is doing really well.)

KarunamonMay 21, 20181 votes

Can't necessarily dismiss their claims just because Riot won't disclose its concrete numbers.

Even if we got 100 of those guys in here right now, their experience is purely gated by what modes they play and what their Elo is. 100 players is nothing when you have around 80 million a month, and it's not representative of low silver where most of the player base is rankwise.

Zero ShingetsuMay 20, 201821 votes

I feel like it's on its way out. How fast it goes is contingent on several things, but it's undeniably on the way out. It's already outlasted many online games, and let's be honest, it hasn't done a lot to breathe new life into itself. The closest thing we've gotten to like a WoW expansion for this game was the remake of Summoner's Rift, which was years ago and really doesn't even come close.

The thing that keeps popular MMOs running for a long time is semi-frequent expansion packs that add a whole heap of new content and get players interested again while drawing a new audience who either hadn't heard about the game before or were waiting for just that kind of content before they really got interested. League is just coasting by on esports, which themselves are barely relevant enough to even warrant commentary, and the same tired formula with a new champion every six months or so.

League has serious competition in HotS and Paladins, both of which release new heroes at a much faster rate than League, and are also good about implementing new content entirely (maps and game modes) because they're still pretty young in their lifespan. If League continues on its current course, it's only a matter of time before people start flocking to new ground, and this is putting aside the burnout the MOBA genre is suffering as a whole.

Z3SleeperMay 20, 20188 votes

The hero/champion/god releases will slow down exponentially once they reach a sufficiently large number just like league has. The initial goal of a moba is to create a wide cast of characters for which infinite unique strategies can be made from to allow the players to develop the meta on their own, from which the devs will then tweak accordingly.

HotS and Paladins are still in that initial phase. Riot’s “initial phase” lasted about 3 years of pumping out a new champion every 2 weeks.

Other games aren’t releasing new characters faster, they’re simply trying to catch up.

Zero ShingetsuMay 20, 20182 votes

Well, exactly. That's why I say League is on the way out. League has hit the stage where they're pumping out champions much slower than they used to, and much slower than other MOBAs. This is a sign. Like a car that starts jerking when you hit a certain gear, or a house that's starting to leak around the windows. It's a sign that League has run its course, and must soon yield the genre to newer games who haven't hit that stage yet.

DW DianaMay 20, 20187 votes

[{quoted}](name=Zero Shingetsu,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=iU3i8idY,comment-id=000300000000,timestamp=2018-05-20T10:09:23.830+0000)

Well, exactly. That's why I say League is on the way out. League has hit the stage where they're pumping out champions much slower than they used to, and much slower than other MOBAs. This is a sign. Like a car that starts jerking when you hit a certain gear, or a house that's starting to leak around the windows. It's a sign that League has run its course, and must soon yield the genre to newer games who haven't hit that stage yet.

They're bringing out less champions at the request of the community. They're concentrating on FIXING the champions we've got. Personally I'm happy with that as too many have been ruined in the last few months.

MAGA MAN X 2020May 20, 20185 votes

The reason the game is dying has nothing to do with champ release rate, it's champ balance. They gave us 10 bans but then balanced the game so 30 champs are must ban. SR is just not fun at all anymore. It's all about who get's the most busted champs.

LVL99 Helper TKMay 20, 20189 votes

League has been getting progressively worse since, like, let's be honest, 2015

ParoeMay 20, 20187 votes

iirc league of legends isnt pulling in as many new people - its stagnating.

Liken ANY online game to the earths crust and mantle; Theres a cycle of older rock slipping beneath the new rock into the mantle, only to be replaced by more new rock. The same cycle applies to videogames, in order for any game to thrive there needs to be a constant flow of new players to replace the old ones that become uninterested or grow to hate the devs and their choices.

DW DianaMay 20, 20181 votes

{quoted}

iirc league of legends isnt pulling in as many new people - its stagnating.

Liken ANY online game to the earths crust and mantle; Theres a cycle of older rock slipping beneath the new rock into the mantle, only to be replaced by more new rock. The same cycle applies to videogames, in order for any game to thrive there needs to be a constant flow of new players to replace the old ones that become uninterested or grow to hate the devs and their choices.

Which is why they're shaking things up again. The do this regularly. In S5 when they changed jungle people said they'd ruined the game, yet here is it.

PercentagesMay 20, 20183 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lord Loki1987,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=iU3i8idY,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2018-05-20T10:15:00.355+0000)

Which is why they're shaking things up again. The do this regularly. In S5 when they changed jungle people said they'd ruined the game, yet here is it.

With a lot less people playing it, lol

DW DianaMay 20, 20181 votes

{quoted}

With a lot less people playing it, lol

Actually its got a lot more people in it then s5.

PercentagesMay 20, 20182 votes

[{quoted}](name=Lord Loki1987,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=iU3i8idY,comment-id=0001000000000000,timestamp=2018-05-20T16:08:52.764+0000)

Actually its got a lot more people in it then s5.

I’d have to see some numbers to believe that.

DW DianaMay 20, 20181 votes

{quoted}

I’d have to see some numbers to believe that.

Took 5 seconds and google dude. Try it sometime:

[Removed by Moderation - Wuks]

Saw a post a few months ago saying league was dying, didn't believe it, but checked it out. There's a fair number of articles like this out there. It's growing year on year, and while some critics say they don't think there will have been as big an active playerbase this season, the worst they are expecting is a stabilization (small growth, but nothing overly noteworthy given the numbers involved i.e 10,000 new players out of 100 million compared to 10 million growth per year previously).

I don't think league will have gone DOWN, just I also doubt it will have gone up much until the changes are NORMAL again.

KarunamonMay 21, 20181 votes

Might wanna edit that link out, you can't link account boosting sites on the board.

ModKnightsKemplarMay 20, 20187 votes

it has been proved that its popularity is decreasing in a steadily increasing rate since less or more 2 or 3 three years ago

Okay, so every time I see one of these threads, I think to myself, "but they're doing the same thing... they are just saying it's proven without providing that proof..."

I'm open to either argument, but let's see the proof. Link some info, cite some sources. How tf would you know if it's doing poorly or not? And don't say "Boards and Reddit" because the English speaking community isn't even their biggest market.

Sahn UzalMay 20, 20185 votes

That's how I feel about it. If there was any solid evidence these claims were true I think we'd be seeing those sources brought up a lot during these arguments, but they just don't seem to be there

ModKnightsKemplarMay 20, 20183 votes

Yes. It wouldn't shock me if they were losing players in NA, but that's the only region that I interact with. Trying to make arguments about the game's health based on a fraction of the sample size is silly.

I mean, even for Europe, many of those players aren't on the NA boards, I presume. Some of y'all are, but there's a lot of other languages being used in other communities over there, I would imagine.

CppLMay 20, 20186 votes

Of course its dying.New player experience is just horrible...garbage tutorial ,smurfs,flamers...you cant even play vs Ai cause of the fucking lvl up bots everyone spaming...also 70% of my friends list is gone ,they just quit the game.

Z3SleeperMay 20, 20181 votes

Lvling bots have actually gone down dramatically. As you can tell by how the once-low-prices for new accounts just increased by like, 500% (~$30 minimum).

PercentagesMay 20, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Lvling bots have actually gone down dramatically. As you can tell by how the once-low-prices for new accounts just increased by like, 500% (~$30 minimum).

It’s against the rules of Riot to buy sell accounts... I just saw a post where they refused to undo someone’s ban because he admitted that he didn’t create the account even though he had been using it, spending money on it...

Z3SleeperMay 20, 20181 votes

Doesn't stop it from happening. Google it, there are several sites to buy LoL accounts from. They used to run at $5 for level 30 accounts, but it's jumped to $30 since.

Unless they catch the bot account or the player blatantly admits they bought the account, the account is safe.

TokogawarufMay 20, 20183 votes

Same, just that in my Case, its my ENTIRE little Friendlist, like 25 special People i met and talked to, quit the Game.

The only Guys I know still playing the Game are my Brother and my best Friend, both of which need at least one other Premade, so me or one of themselves, to even bring up enough motivation to play at all. And yes thats a very important bit.

My Friend need extern motivation to bring themselves to play LoL, and im almost entirly feel the same at this point.

In all Honestly, no matter how high i hold RIot in my Heart and on the Boards, the greatest Things keeping me are the Characters (Draven is love).

Daddy AntsMay 20, 20184 votes

I don't like the current meta either but League definitely isn't dying.

WoW had almost 13 million players at it's peak and now it's lucky to have half that.

WoW is still going strong and it's a 14 year old game.

As for the meta, I'd rather have a tank or Ardent Censer meta again than put up with this shit for 1 more day,

ZephyrDrakeMay 20, 20183 votes

League is consistently in the top 3 most popular/streamed games in twitch, only losing the #1 spot when the next "new hot and hyped" game is released. I doubt that it's popularity is decreasing when more and more people are watching streams of it. Whether for normal streamers to pros to huge events. Unlike most other games that only reach that amount of people with the huge events it might have

HügöMay 20, 20182 votes

There are several reason why players leave games. The smallest one is due to real life issues and getting bored. The biggest part is that the game developers do straigth up bullshit. I read here alot of time "they are just burned out after playing the same game for 5 years", that is cute guys. I played the same gayme for 11 years and stoped 1.5 years ago due to bullshit updates the developers did, and not because I burned out. I actually started the game again 3 weeks ago, not because they changed anything but it became better then league.

Spank the FoxMay 20, 20188 votes

You’d think people playing for 5+ years would then realize we’ve been through more turmultous shit than Scuttler Crab or Ardent.

Also, most people aren’t like you. Most people don’t post or visit any gaming forums, don’t play 10+ hours a week, don’t care about certain game modes, fad chasing, etc etc. Your “small percentage” of people do actually add up when brought together. Generally, only hardcore fans quit over “bullshit the balance team pulls”

Snowman ArcMay 20, 20182 votes

Not only that. Most casual players just log in, play 3-4 games a day to relax and fill up time. They just play their favorite champion and that's it. They don't know about meta shifts, good / bad updates, problematic metas / champions. They are just happy if they win and sad if they lose. I have quite a lot of friends playing League, who are those "casual" players. Most of them quit over the past 6 months. Do you know why? Because they got tired of the toxicity, not the meta.

They got tired of flamers being in every single game, by trolls who just ruin everyone's games, AFKers, incompetent players etc. Not because ADCs are OP, or that top laners are irrelevant. THEY DON'T CARE about any of that, and that's a big majority of the player base.

Therefore, if the game is gonna die, as many people like to claim, it's not gonna die because of the meta. Or because Scuttler is now broken, or because ADCs one shot everyone and I don't know what else. The real reason why people really quit is simple. Toxicity. There's way too much toxicity during the past 2 seasons, especially this one. Even I have become quite toxic and I never really was. Toxicity simply makes EVERY GAME unfun. And most casual players play the game to have fun and relax. Guess what? As soon as some other new game comes up, they jump ship, because 1) they want to get out of the toxicity and 2) they found a place to go to.

TL;DR: If League is dying, it's because of toxicity.

LeetriMay 20, 20181 votes

You have to realize not everyone is like you. I used to play TF2 religiously basically every day for like 2-3 years, but then I just stopped. Not because of any "bullshit updates", but because I had played so much it wasn't as fun as it used to be. If you listen to the same song every day you're eventually gonna tire of it, even if it was your absolute favourite song.

Snowman ArcMay 20, 20181 votes

Some people are just indeed burned out.

I have been playing RuneScape from 2005 until 2015. That's 10 years, and I've logged way too many hours, probably an average of 4 hours a day, every day. That's A LOT. The reason I kept playing is because I had no real interest to learn a new game. I didn't know if I'd like the new game and didn't want to invest in it, so I kept playing RS. It doesn't change the fact that I was burned out by it though. I still had fun, but at that time, it was more of a way to pass time, rather than evolve in it. I had done everything. I had reached #350 in the highscores ladder out of a huge player base. Some friend introduced me to league during mid 2015, and because I had friends there that played the game (I also met my current girlfriend at that time through League), I attached to it and never played Runescape again.

There are a lot of people burned out by League as well. Even I, with just 3 years in, do not get the same satisfaction out of it. Not because of Riot's way with updates etc, or for the toxic community, but because there is only so much you can do in League. How many times can you play a single champion, before you stop getting the same satisfaction out of it? How many different games with different champion combinations can you play? Eventually, you have kinda completed the game. You have done almost everything.

Sure, things like toxic community are potential reasons as well, but some people are naturally burned out, but they just have not found a new game to jump on. Quite a lot of new games are complex to begin with and a lot of people don't wanna go through that phase. I certainly don't. That's why you see quite a lot of easy-to-pick-up games gain a lot of twitch viewership in their early stages, with League's numbers dropping down. People who are burned out by League realize a new game is out, which is easy to pick up (FPS games are generally easier to start with), so they instantly jump ship. That's why Fortnite and PUBG became quite successful fast.

If there's no game to jump to, nobody will quit their current game, no matter how bad it gets. I remember reading some psychology thing, where it stated that addicts only keep to their current addiction, because there is nothing else there to fill up that space. Alcoholics resort to drinking, because their life is a mess and have nothing to fall back on, like friends, family, children, hobbies etc. Same with the addiction of video games. You play one game, you get addicted, and you only quit it when you find something else to replace it with, be that a new game, a new hobby, a job, a boyfriend / girlfriend etc.

PandeonorMay 20, 20182 votes

{quoted}

People saying such things lack a certain amount of logic

Even if League isn't "dying", it has been proved that its popularity is decreasing in a steadily increasing rate since less or more 2 or 3 three years ago, said rate being quite fast at the moment, hence why people might think the game is dying

Well.

http://na.op.gg/statistics/tier/

ranked accounts total (NA):

10.9.2017: 1647913 2.11.2017: 1776501 days: 53 per day: +2426 ranked accounts 13.9.2016: 1815557 8.11.2016: 1963553 days: 56 per day: +2642 ranked accounts 2.09.2015: 1544024 5.11.2015: 1747252 days: 64 per day: +3175 ranked accounts 3.09.2014: 1470812 3.11.2014: 1626676 days: 61 per day: + 2555 ranked accounts

EUW 2017: +3134/day (beginning/niveau 3370020 at 11.9.2017) EUW 2016: +4269/day (b/n 2963281 at 18.9.2016) EUW 2015: +3899/day (b/n 2406252 at 28.8.2015) EUW 2014: +3818/day ( b/n 2243074 at 23.9.2014)

This aside of my posting here: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-discussion/mXbJtfdb-league-playerbase-fortnite-some-data-around-all-in-2018

Look at the amount of players at the starting point around september and the raising for the weeks after. Maybe slight problem in NA but in NA there is traditionally not the biggest fan-group for MOBAs.

We can add up NA+EUW 2016: 4.778.838 and for 2017: 5.017.933

There is a point of saturation and nothing last forever.

But. "It has been proved". May I ask you where I can read this?

An interested player here.-> [Pandeonor]

TL:DR We are all dying. More or less. Fortnite is dying too and will for sure "die" before League does. I guess that _ this_ statements not lack of logic but lack of sense, or not?

A game with let´s assume 10 million ranked accounts [+China] around the globe and around +6000 new ranked accounts per day [NA+EUW] dropped from 7000 is quite a bit of a Leviathan. And the biggest problem is to talk about a "META" as a reason. That´s at least strange.

Isn´t it?

PaffWasTakenMay 20, 20181 votes

I don't remember mentioning Fortnite in anything I said. Maybe because the whole point of my post is about the interest in League of Legends slowly degrading within the player base, and not how other games influences it, hmmmm?

Just how I answered a previous comment, I'll tell you to look at google's popularity trends charts concerning the game. this is, in my opinion, far more representative than the total number of ranked accounts since it is a clear fact that smurf accounts (who became a serious problem to the ranked system in its totality too) and returning player accounts are getting quite numerous compared to actualy new players.

You ask where the decrease in popularity has been proved. Well, jokes on you, if you didn't know it means that you kinda missed out this really interesting post made 2 years ago who kinda went "viral" at the time : https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/1cQuwVZN-the-real-reasons-riot-is-forcing-dynamic-queue

This exact post is, to some people, the proof that those persons needed to say that the game is declining without being, well, assuming things. You can't say otherwise, you can't deny it: not only it was clear 2 years ago that there was a definite decline in popularity for the game, but Riot THEMSELVES reacted to it, they tried to stop it because they knew long ago that this needed to be stopped before it scaled ever more. Even THEM can't deny it, why some players should?

PandeonorMay 20, 20182 votes

Well.

Sorry for not english title, but anyway, have a look:

http://abload.de/image.php?img=googledying12u7j.jpg

Now. In your own words. If you follow this logic. The term searched was "google". This word peaked 2013 and dropped since then now down to 70%.

What is the result? You want to explain me that Google is on the road to die? I guess not.And the peak of League was in 2013 also (in terms of google searching results).

Would you agree that googlr trends may not be really a big point here

L RayquazaMay 20, 20182 votes

I have played a ton of games that are dying/died and league is not. Queue up for a game in some kind of team style and legit have one specific player on your team damn near every game without actually queuing with him, play an MMO and go through 4 entire zones without meeting another player, barren hub towns or a 5 minute queue big quick. That game is dying. Are less people playing league? Yes, totally with new fresh games like Fortnite and PUBG. Is league starting to hit the beginning of it's end? Possibly, but if so it is really early. I still have 30/60 second queue times and I only saw the same person multiple times only once off the top of my head. The game still racks hundreds of thousands of players a day. Go play a game with a daily average of just a couple thousand and tell me league is dying.

ModCaptainMårvelousMay 20, 20182 votes

I'm not saying the game is dying, not at all. Maybe it is, but thats not the point. the point is that people can't neglect the flagrant flaws that are appearing each months in the game and say "everything is fine, move along, people who don't enjoy it are haters". The game isn't doomed, the problem is that it has the potential to be easily ten times better for the majority of the players, but we aren't going in this direction at all.

I disagree with this statement.

Whenever you make a change, you have to look at everyone affected. Sometimes you're affecting the casual playerbase. Sometimes the hardcore. Sometimes the little itty bitty champ mains by making ~~a dumb poppy change~~ a champ shift. The thing that you should be focusing on after your initial success is to hold onto your core audience and the one that has the most staying power. Now, I'm not saying that you can't appeal to casuals or pros or what-have-you but in trying to appease the largest majority you end up creating candy: Tastes good, fun in the short term but in the long term it rots your teeth and causes more problems. Class updates were a good example of this, as much as I liked them: 3-4 reworks rapid fire and a bunch of new items at the cost of long-term game health.

It's no secret that MOBA-style games are declining and it's not just League. DOTA2 has had a steady playerdrop since 2015 or so. SMITE has been a slow dip/stabilizing if the Steamchart numbers are to be believed. No clue on HotS but I'm going to imagine they have the same issue. We're seeing the exodus of the casual players who played these games as social games because there was nothing else that was as popular that was free-to-play, could be played with several friends at once and could be done in about half an hour. With these players gone, you'll be left with your core audience, the players who love the game for the game and want nothing more than to play MOBAs.

If anything, Riot should focus more on this subset of players because they're the ones who will keep the game alive far beyond whatever doomsday prophecy your Fortnite loving (or Riot hating) friend smugly predicts.