Why champions like Annie, Ezreal, Jinx, and Caitlyn, get so many skins?

YumaS2Astral·Feb 24, 2016·8 votes·2,825 views

I know I will be downvoted for asking this but... Why Riot makes so many skins for them? They already have lots of skins. Annie, for example, has 10 skins (counting legacy skins) and her last skin has been released over a year ago. Why she should gain another skin now? Why her? Why not, for example, Swain, which hasn't received a new skin for ages? Or even for Sion, which, despite having received a complete VU in 2014, has yet to gain a new skin. In fact, the last new skin that Sion had was released in 2011, 5 years ago. Kennen, which has also been suffering from the same problem, is only going to get a new skin on this upcoming patch.

Why some champions take years to get new skins, while others get lots of skins on a short amount of time?

25 Comments

AlsekFeb 24, 20169 votes

Jinx has soooooo many skins.

3 is a lot, right? No one else has 3.

Wait, are we still counting mafia as a skin? Probably better consider it 2...

GreenLoreFeb 24, 20165 votes

The reason why annie gets the hextech skin is most likely because annie is a cheap champion,that is owned by a lot of people and very well known among league players(also I think the theme worked the best for her) I mean imagine how it would suck if you got lucky and get the exclusive hextech skin....only to find out that you'll need to save 6300 ip to buy the champion first.

Then there is the fact that swain for example is planned to get a VGU,so I doubt that he'll receive any new skins before that.

RavenhaleFeb 24, 20162 votes

Actually players normally get a champion for free when they get a free skin (Alistar via YouTube, Garen via Twitter, Tristana via Facebook). It wouldn't surprise me that the Free Annie Skin from Hextech would automatically add Annie to your champion pool. This probably meant it was all but guaranteed that the Hextech skin was going to be for a 1350 or 450 champion.

trash sionFeb 24, 20164 votes

I've wondered the same thing. Makes me think Riot makes skins purely based off of champion popularity. Notice how all the champions you mentioned are fan favorites?

ModmarFeb 24, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Azuk the Jungler,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=UL7lYfE6,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-02-24T20:02:36.479+0000)

I've wondered the same thing. Makes me think Riot makes skins purely based off of champion popularity. Notice how all the champions you mentioned are fan favorites?

This is absolutely correct. I'm still waiting for my Yorick skins, he hasn't gotten any... ever. The only ones he has are the ones he released with. Back in June 22nd, 2011. 5 years ago.

Ruin LanceFeb 24, 20161 votes

they aren't going to release skins for yorick, since he's an extremely unhealthy champion demanding a rework. i remember a rioter saying that yorick will be getting some skins some time after they rework him, which will be in the next year

ModmarFeb 24, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ruin Lance,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=UL7lYfE6,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2016-02-24T20:09:58.683+0000)

they aren't going to release skins for yorick, since he's an extremely unhealthy champion demanding a rework. i remember a rioter saying that yorick will be getting some skins some time after they rework him, which will be in the next year

They said a rework was coming within the year, 2 years ago. I've been tracking everything they put out regarding it and they've gone silent. No rework =/= no skin. He should still get one after FIVE YEARS.

GreenLoreFeb 24, 20161 votes

2 years ago was the year in which they released sions rework and back then they said already that Sion would be their big rework of the year and that poppy would come after him.

SharjoFeb 24, 20163 votes

If that was true only these champions would get skins and other champions just wouldn't have any. Some super popular champions have very few skins (looking at you Zed) and some unpopular champions have a large number (Nunu comes to mind). Skarner's one of this game's least popular champions but he got two new skins in the span of five months after having no new skins for about three years.

Just looking at things case by case you see that the only trend to skins is that old champions generally have more because they're older and have had more opportunities to have them made, and champions who were butt ugly in terms of in-game visuals didn't because they were butt ugly and making skins for them in that state would be a waste as the skins themselves would be fairly shitty.

japan hate accFeb 25, 20161 votes

Not completely. Yasuo is kinda like one of Riot's poster boys for a fighter, yet he only has two, three if you count the Blood Moon skin coming out some time.

VanjieFeb 24, 20162 votes

Because certain champions have skins that sell better than others. My main Karma recently got a skin and I have to say it is one of the ugliest and laziest skins I have seen in a long time. As far as I know she hasn't received a skin prior to the recent one in a while. Riot does typically at least 2 Annie, Teemo and Ahri skins a year. There are certain champions they make the excuse that they need to update them before they do anything, but the have no problem making everyone wait for updates to get new skins. Riot's favorite champion Tryn has received the most skins in the past year and a half.

Players are more inclined to buy a Hextech Annie skin than a Hextech Karma skin . . . and that is the truth. Riot branded it that way, sells it that way, and updates champions that way. There are champions low on their priority list for updates, skins, and branding.

YumaS2AstralFeb 24, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Because certain champions have skins that sell better than others. My main recently got a skin and I have to say it is one of the ugliest and laziest skins I have seen in a long time. As far as I know she hasn't received a skin prior to the recent one in a while. Riot does typically at least 2 Annie, Teemo and Ahri skins a year. There are certain champions they make the excuse that they need to update them before they do anything, but the have no problem making everyone wait for updates to get new skins. Riot's favorite champion Tryn has received the most skins in the past year and a half.

Players are more inclined to buy a Hextech Annie skin than a Hextech Karma skin . . . and that is the truth. Riot branded it that way, sells it that way, and updates champions that way. There are champions low on their priority list for updates, skins, and branding.

Just to clarify, they are not going to sell Hextech Annie. They are going to give it for free to everyone that gets at least 10 gemstones on the new Hextech Crafting system.

RavenhaleFeb 24, 20161 votes

I don't understand the need to lie about the frequency of Annie, Teemo and Ahri skins. Very few champions got two skins in the span of 9/2014 to 12/2015. And Tryndamere got Beast Hunter & Nightmare in the same time frame as Draven got Beast Hunter & Pool Party. Tryndamere has simply been around much longer, so his skin pool sits in the top third. And considering his Warring Kingdoms came out in January 2014... well, Syndra (Atlantean/Diamonds/Snowday) and Gragas (Superfan/Fnatic/Caskbreaker) both have him beat for shortest time frame in regards to "recent" skins.

VanjieFeb 24, 20161 votes

It's the truth though. They release more Tryn, Annie, Ahri, and Teemo skins than any other champion. There are champions that have almost no skins and they continue to make more skins for these champions. The reason is because they sell better and Riot it makes it that way. Sona is another champion that receives a lot of skins.

SharjoFeb 24, 20163 votes

So Annie is the only champion with ten skins.

There are four champions with nine skins, none of which you mentioned, them being Ryze, Gragas, Jax and Twisted Fate.

Teemo and Tryndamere have eight skins a piece, a number shared with Kog'Maw, Fiddlesticks, Blitzcrank, Warwick, Amumu, Sivir, Alistar, Veigar, Dr. Mundo, Katarina, Nidalee, Ezreal, Miss Fortune for a total of fifteen champions.

There are twenty champions with seven skins, with Sona who you mentioned along with Ashe, Kayle, Morgana, Nunu, Tristana, Singed, Twitch, Rammus, Gangplank, Malphite, Corki, Shaco, Pantheon, Garen, Akali, Vladimir, Caitlyn, Renekton and Lee Sin.

And while Ahri has six skins, she shares this number with Master Yi, Cho'Gath, Anivia, Janna, Nasus, Poppy, Shen, Kennen, Xin Zhao, Lux, Jarvan IV, Vayne, Orianna, Riven, Graves and Sejuani, for a total of seventeen champions.

So going off of what you said, Yes Annie has the most skins, but Teemo and Tryndamere either have the same number or fewer skins than seventeen champions, and Ahri has the same number or fewer skins than fifty six other champions. With a cast of 129 champions she's in the top half of the amount of skins and is just a bit ahead of the middle of the pack right now in terms of skin numbers.

So Annie having more skins than any other is correct, your other examples are not. Look at that list and tell me that these champions are _all_super popular and so Riot makes them skins for that reason. You'll find that's not true with folks like Cho'Gath, Nunu, Shaco are up there and they aren't random outliers. The biggest trend you see when comparing skin numbers is that most of the time older champions just have more skins. Not true 100% of the time as Kassadin, Sion and Soraka attest to, but true enough to draw some hypothesis from.

RavenhaleFeb 24, 20163 votes

Annie (10), Tryndamere (8), Teemo (8), Ahri (6). Honestly, Ahri is only worth mentioning because she is somewhat new compared to the others. She's got nothing on Gragas (9), Fortune (8), Twisted Fate (9), Alistar (8), Ryze (9), Jax (9), Nidalee (8), Sivir (8), Ezreal (8) or Blitzcrank (8). Heck, Poppy and Shen both sit at 6 and haven't had skins in years. And that's the real fact. Some of these champions were given a decent pool of skins years ago, which has nothing to do with the skin team's activities these past two years.

There's no logic or argument that someone playing Annie should have to wait until every champion gets 7+ skins before getting a new skin. Bickering over the number of skins Annie has compared to Yasuo or Yorick is silly. They weren't released at the same time and there was a 2 year gap between Panda & Sweetheart. Annie skins aren't being pumped out unreasonably like they were back in 2011 (4 skins that year). Teemo may have been two a year way back when, but there was almost a three year gap between Panda & Omega Squad.

There is no argument about skins being decided based on sales. Tryndamere's top owned skin (Demonblade 72,741 Owners) isn't even in the top 100 skins. Nightmare sits at 611 of 665 skins, a mediocre accomplishment for something that had half a year to sell. Lotus for Irelia had 1.5 times the sales, so from a sales perspective, Irelia should have been picked over Trynd.

GreenLoreFeb 24, 20161 votes

Uhm warden karma was released almost exactly one year after order of the lotus karma. Getting 2 skins in 2 years is actually a fairly good quota.

SharjoFeb 24, 20161 votes

Well in Hextech Annie's case it's because they would've figured a highly recognisable older champion having a cool skins tied in with Hextech Crafting would work well and get people involved with the system. For anybody else it's basically "eh let's make this for X champion".

Having a lot of skins shouldn't disqualify you from getting new skins.

Champions that are up for any kind of gameplay related update are off the table for skins until that's done and dusted so a bunch of champions won't be recieving skins soon because of it, which includes Taric, Yorick and everyone in the mid year mage update.

Being a champion with a small pool of skins sucks, but they'll get them eventually. I mean there's only one champion who's never had a new skins that wasn't a release skin: Yorick, and he's been off the table for skins since they put him up to be reworked.

Hell even if you just wanna say "Riot only makes skins for popular champions", that's not a bad thing for Riot to do considering skins are their only income. Nothing they do generates money at the rate skins do and other things like esports are huge money sinks. Making skins for popular champions is basically guaranteed money, so why not go for it?

Shroom JunkieFeb 24, 20161 votes

Because, 1. They're popular champs, 2. They're good skins. Why create a skin for a champ if it or the champ sucks? Nobody would buy it.

Shadowkirby14Feb 24, 20161 votes

I've been keeping track on what champion is due for a skin.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/zBlPEwf6-champions-that-are-due-for-a-skin

Jeddy017Feb 24, 20161 votes

You do have to wonder,why does Annie get the Hextech skin to go along with the Hextech crafting?Yeah it's will only be available through HT crafting,but it's still Annie's 10th or so skin. I'm sure there are champs with less skins who could have been chosen for this Hextech thematic like Rumble for example.

l Helios lFeb 24, 20161 votes

I know I will be downvoted for asking this but... Why Riot makes so many skins for them? They already have lots of skins. Annie, for example, has 10 skins (counting legacy skins) and her last skin has been released over a year ago. Why she should gain another skin now? Why her?

Some champions are much easier to create concepts for than others. I mean, it's hard to take Annie and do something that is just plain bad for her to be dressed as. Someone like Kennen or LeBlanc can be slightly more challenging imo. Not justifying the lack of skins, just an alternate aspect.

Why not, for example, Swain, which hasn't received a new skin for ages?

Swain has been said he won't get something until he is updated I'm fairly certain. A rioter commented on the Dragon Master Swain thread a few months ago if you want to dig for that. Swain needs touch ups for sure, and I'd be willing to wait for his new skin until after this.

Or even for Sion, which, despite having received a complete VU in 2014, has yet to gain a new skin. In fact, the last new skin that Sion had was released in 2011, 5 years ago.

Pretty sure Katey said something on this a while ago that stuff is moving for him soon.

Kennen, which has also been suffering from the same problem, is only going to get a new skin on this upcoming patch.

Probably something related to his popularity. Kennen also had decent skins as he was before Blood Moon, but Blood Moon is sexy. He had like 3 I believe (not counting his chromas). That's the same as Jinx now.

Why some champions take years to get new skins, while others get lots of skins on a short amount of time?

Some are just easier to make skins for than others imo. There's a lot of stuff you can do with a champion like Trundle (COUGH COUGH!) that you couldn't do with someone like Xerath; there are like a million things you could do with Annie and Tahm that you cant do with Renekton or Zac. I mean, Zac feels so hard to make decent skins for since it's always just a blob of goo or Renekton is always a giant crocodile with a curved blade. Meanwhile, Annie can fit themes like Alice in Wonderland or Little Red Riding Hood and it works really well, despite being just a girl and some pet. Idk man, that's just how I see it.

Edit: and let's be real, that Annie skin is badass.

IcyPepperFeb 24, 20161 votes

Jinx wut

Billy VoHagenFeb 24, 20161 votes

Because they sell.

FloRaider42Feb 24, 20161 votes

It's much harder to create skins for certain champions, mainly caused by animation and consistency. Additionally they usually wait for after the rework to make more skins.