Is League dying? My view
So many people are declaring that league is dying, dead, resurrected, and is as strong as ever. With so many claims made all over the place and different definitions of what "dying" means, it can be confusing to decide where it stands. Here's my two cents worth on the matter. Don't spend it all in one place. League came out in October of 2009. It's nearly nine years old, and has been through quite a lot. Before we get down to business, the only modern online game that I can think of that did that well would be Team Fortress 2. Props to both Valve and Riot for making their games last a long time.
Now, finally, to business. The first thing I want to bring up is that many of these claims are backed up with the release of one new online game (Fortnite being a recent one). This is not true. There have been many online multiplayer games that have been released since 2009 (I mean many. The industry is strong). If one release could kill League, it would have died a long time ago. Has League stood the test of time? Yes. While I already said that a couple paragraphs ago, it is worth bringing up again. Keep it on the back burner. Has a recent update killed it? This one is iffy. Obviously, with such a vast amount of players (and playstyles to match), any update will leave somebody unhappy. Some people do drastic things, including quitting when an update butchers a favorite champion or item for them. With that in mind, many of Riot's updates do seem to be changes for the sake of changes. Jungle XP, rift scuttlers, infinity edge, and the tower nerfs are the recent updates many of us do not like. It wasn't broken, but they tried to fix it. Some of us left, but not enough to kill the game. And there's also the community. Toxicity reigns as the community debates on what's trolling, what isn't, and what is reportable. It is likely that a good number of people see toxicity and decide to quit over it. As important as the issue is, it probably isn't enough to kill league. VideoGameDunkey. He was one of (if not the) greatest league YouTubers back in the day. Now, whenever he brings up League, he slams it. Many other league YouTubers quit when he did, so it did a lot of damage to league. However, this was a couple years ago. Most of the damage is done already.
While it is important to dismiss a lot of those arguments, the one thing that matters is the queue time. So many players (myself included) have noticed queue times that are extending as the days go by. Numbers never lie, so that means that there are fewer players online at any given time. While the factors above may be adding up to something, it probably isn't enough to make the quitting rate higher than the joining rate. But something has to explain the queue timers... Remember how I asked you to keep the game's age on the back burner? I bet you forgot! Anyway, I have noticed that other old online games at (particularly GTA Online and StarCraft 2) are hurting. It is tough to find well populated lobbies anymore in GTA, and in SC, the arcade isn't as active. Those games have less to offer than League, and time is catching up to them. League, like I said has done well to stay ahead of its age, but the queue timers prove that isn't going to last forever. The fall is gradual, but it is quite there. I estimate 3-5 years before it really starts to fall.
If you can read this, you don't need glasses (sorry, I had to close with something funny).
