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League of Legends Player Count and Statistics (2025)
Released in 2009, League of Legends remains as one, if not the most popular games in the world. While Riot Games have not published a player count or viewership reports, third party sources indicate ~110 million players login into their League of Legends account monthly. These paired with the 6.78M peak viewership (excluding China) of Worlds 2025, the Riot Games’ first offering continues to dominate competitive gaming.
In this article, we break down everything that defines League’s player base today — MAU, DAU, CCU, regions, countries, demographics, engagement, esports influence, and whether LoL is actually “dying” in 2025.
How many people play League of Legends in 2025
The League of Legends player count in 2025 is estimated at:
- Monthly Active Users (MAU): ~110 million
- Daily Active Players: ~ 7-9 million
- Peak Concurrent Players: ~800k
League largely remains stable year-over-year, with a slight downtick. The comparative decrease in the overall numbers is the reduction in League’s share in the Chinese market. This decrease is the effect of the official release of VALORANT and Counter-Strike in China.
These numbers reflect conservative estimates triangulated from multiple reputable sources.
League of Legends Player Base by Region
League of Legends remains a popular game worldwide, the player count is heavily influenced by Asian countries. China and Korea are by far the biggest markets for the game, followed by Europe and then North America.
China alone represents a massive portion of the overall MAU, with estimates suggesting 40-50% of total global player base.
Below is a conservative modeled approximation of the 2025 landscape.
| Region | % of Global Player Base | Est. MAU Range | Est. DAU Range | Peak CCU Window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China (CN) | 40–45% | 40–55M | 4.5–6M | 6–10 PM CST |
| Korea (KR) | 12–15% | 12–18M | 1.5–2M | 6–11 PM KST |
| Europe (EUW/EUNE) | 15–18% | 14–20M | 1.5–2.5M | 6–11 PM CET |
| North America (NA) | 8–10% | 8–12M | 900k–1.3M | 5–10 PM PT |
| Brazil (BR) | 6–8% | 6–9M | 700k–1M | 6–10 PM BRT |
| LATAM | 3–5% | 3–6M | 300k–500k | 6–10 PM local |
| Southeast Asia (SEA) | 3–4% | 3–5M | 300k–450k | 7–11 PM local |
| Turkey (TR) | 2–3% | 2–4M | 200k–400k | 6–10 PM TRT |
| Russia/CIS | 1–2% | 1–2M | 100k–250k | 6–11 PM MSK |
| Oceania (OCE) | <1% | 500k–900k | 50k–120k | 6–10 PM AET |
Asia (KR, CN, SEA)
Asia is the backbone of the global LoL ecosystem.
Korea (KR)
The KR server has the highest skill concentration in the world. PC café data (which Riot and local analytics share quarterly) suggest a ~35% average market share for League of Legends. LoL is consistently the top 3 most-played games, with the LCK/Worlds hype helping it to secure the number 1 spot often.
China (CN)
The Chinese LoL player base is enormous, but official numbers are intentionally vague. Tencent filings and WeGame uptime suggest a MAU of 40–55M, easily dwarfing every other market. LPL success fuels recurring spikes, especially during Worlds.
These numbers, however, have been seeing a decline, with League’s popularity slowly plateauing due to multiple reasons. One of the biggest is the lack of success of LPL on the international stage. Additionally, towards the tail end of 2024, local clients of VALORANT and Counter-Strike were officially released in China, leading to the player base diversifying.
That said, China still outshines every western market. The best indicator is the UZI Hall of Legend Bundles generating $3.2 Mn in China within 5 hours of its release.
SEA
Post-Garena, SEA went through turbulence, but 2024–2025 show stabilization. SEA’s fragmentation (PH, SG, MY, TH, VN treated differently) makes exact consolidation harder, but conservative MAU sits around 3–5M.
North America and Europe
North America (NA) and Europe (EU) together make up roughly 23–28% of League’s global player base. This still dwarfs as compared to the west, but League of Legends still remains one of the most popular games.
North America
Similar to China, League of Legends’ popularity has been declining. While the decline is slow, it is steady. There are still frequent spikes with professional League of Legends and Arcane motivating players to return to the game.
An interesting stat point to notice is that League has a loyal player base in North America, meaning despite the fluctuations, a big chunk of the player base regularly plays League of Legends.
Players also prefer ARAM, with estimates suggesting 40-45% of total match volume. This shift is a player base enjoying League of Legends as a game and not a competitive ladder.
The player decline can also be correlated to the declining popularity of LCS, with the 2025 numbers peaking lower than the 2024, despite the introduction of LTA. This also resulted in the dissolution of the LTA back into LCS and CBLOL.
For 2026, however, Riot plans to introduce new blood, reintroducing a popular format in the hopes of reinvigorating the fan base.
Europe
Compared to NA, League of Legends is flourishing in the EU. EUW remains the single most popular Western LoL server, it rivals North America in total activity.
The player base is also concentrated into the ranked queues, with a big chunk of the player base still regularly logging in to play ranked.
This player base also reflects in the LEC numbers, while there was a small decline, the overall popularity is stable. An interesting data point is the thriving T2/Academy league in Europe. Various ERL (France, Spain etc.) all have a supportive community.
This popularity was only incremented by the injection of Caedrel and Los Ratones and their involvement with T2 League. The popular tier 2 also means there are more localised support groups and player bases that deepens the talent pool of Europe.
League of Legends Player Stats by Year (2011–2025)
Here’s a conservative long-term view of LoL’s growth, flattening, and stabilization over 14 years.
| Year | Est. MAU | Peak CCU |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 32–35M | 300k–400k |
| 2012 | 45–50M | 500k–600k |
| 2013 | 55–60M | 650k–750k |
| 2014 | 65–70M | 800k–900k |
| 2015 | 75–85M | 900k–1M |
| 2016 | 90–100M | 1–1.2M |
| 2017 | 95–105M | 1.2–1.3M |
| 2018 | 95–110M | 1.3–1.4M |
| 2019 | 95–110M | 1.3–1.5M |
| 2020 | 95-115M | 1.5–1.8M |
| 2021 | 100-120M | 1.6–1.9M |
| 2022 | 95–115M | 1.5–1.8M |
| 2023 | 90–115M | 1.4–1.7M |
| 2024 | 95–118M | 1.5–1.7M |
| 2025* | 95–110M | 800k–1.0M |
Demographic
The demographic is the hardest data point to estimate, given the data isn’t publicly available. Moreover, the data is heavily survey biased, meaning these are conservative approximations and do not necessarily reflect the ground reality.
| Metric | Global | NA/EU | Asia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg Age Band | 21–27 | 22–28 | 20–26 |
| Female Player Share | 10–18% | 15–20% | 8–12% |
| Ranked Participation | 40–55% | 45–60% | 50–65% |
| ARAM Share of Matches | 28–35% | 35–45% | 20–30% |
| Avg Session Length | 28–36 min | 26–34 min | 30–38 min |
These ranges reflect global surveys (Newzoo, Statista), Riot insights, and platform engagement models.
Engagement
Time investment in LoL varies dramatically depending on whether you’re a casual ARAM enjoyer or grinding ranked at 2 AM on a Wednesday.
A few conservative takeaways:
- Median annual hours (casual): 50–80 hours
- Median annual hours (ranked players): 120–250 hours
- High-end competitive grinders: 500–1,200 hours
Tools like Wasted on LoL provide individual playtime estimations, but accuracy depends on profile visibility and third-party data. Still, it’s a useful benchmark if you want to see just how deep you’ve gone.
Esports Viewership
League of Legends esports is statistically the biggest and the most popular by a wide margin. The next closest competitor of League of Legends is Mobile Legends Bang Bang, a mobile version clone of League. Even then, LoL Esport has almost 2 million in peak viewership over MLBB.
2024 vs 2025 LoL Esports Data
| 2024 | 2025 | |||
| Peak Viewership | Average Viewership | Peak Viewership | Average Viewership | |
| MSI | 2,829,728 | 1,013,678 | 3,447,582 | 955,205 |
| Worlds | 6,856,769 | 1,731,157 | 6,752,585 | 1,534,400 |
| LCS/ LTA North | 260,753 | 107,800 | 228,268 | 84,734 |
| LTA (combined tournaments) | 318,462 | 180,880 | ||
| LCK | 2,656,938 | 341,786 | 2,032,201 | 394,949 |
| LEC | 830,816 | 274,435 | 801,369 | 278,079 |
The data for China viewership numbers are not included due to lack of proper sources. Every major tournament including Worlds also causes in-game player spikes, especially in EUW, Korea and China.
Follow tournaments on Strafe for real-time match updates.
Is League of Legends Dying
Short answer: No
While League of Legends isn’t growing, data suggest League of Legends still remains the one of the most popular competitive PC games. The narrative of League dying is an incorrect conclusion drawn from the lack of explosive growth as compared to 2015-18.
League of Legends Concurrent Players Explained
Even though we removed the live counter, here’s what concurrent players (CCU) actually represent — something many players misunderstand.
- MAU = unique accounts active per month
- DAU = unique accounts active per day
- CCU = players online at the exact same moment
CCU depends heavily on:
- regional prime-time windows,
- weekend vs weekday variance,
- major patches,
server status events (Riot outages can spike search interest but drop CCU).
NA and EUW peak between 6–11 PM local time.
KR and CN peak between 6–10 PM in their respective regions.
Player Statistics Table (Copy-Ready)
Conservative modeled estimates for the last three years.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 YTD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Est. MAU | 90–115M | 95–118M | 95–110M |
| Est. DAU | 9–13M | 10–14M | 7–10M |
| Peak CCU | 1.4–1.7M | 1.5–1.7M | 800k–1.1M |
| Twitch Hours Watched | 1.311B | 1.3B | ~1.0B |
| Worlds Peak Viewers | 6.40M | 6.85M | 6.75M |
| Avg Session Length | 30–35 min | 30–36 min | 28–36 min |
Last updated: January 2025
Methodology, Sources, and Update Policy
These are modeled conservative approximations, built using:
- Riot dev blogs and historical statements
- Tencent quarterly filings (CN activity)
- Korea PC café rankings and playrate distributions
- Newzoo / Statista gaming demographics
- TwitchTracker and SullyGnome viewership data
- Esports Charts statistics
- Third-party player count aggregators (cross-validated; inflated data excluded)
- Google Trends and search interest patterns
- Internal Strafe esports and match-tracking data
Update cadence:
- Quarterly for all major sections
- After Worlds for seasonal refresh
- As-needed for region-level adjustments
FAQs
How many people play League of Legends right now?
Approximately ~800k players are playing League of Legends right now (depends on the time of the day).
Is League of Legends dying in 2025?
NO, League of Legends is the most popular competitive video game with ~110M monthly players and ~6.9M peak viewership.
What’s the average age of LoL players?
According to multiple third party sources, the average age of LoL players is 23 years.
What percent of LoL players are female?
According to demographic survey data 10-18% of the player base identifies as female. This is an aggregated from third party sources
What country has the most LoL players?
China — by a massive margin.
How accurate are LoL player counters?
Without official Riot Game sources, there are no accurate pointers for exact player count statistics for League of League. Most of these numbers are estimates based on tracking sources.
How much time have I spent in League?
Use services like tracker.gg/Wasted on League to find out the rough estimated total League of Legends time.
Track LoL matches, tournaments, live drafts, and female champion pick/ban trends on Strafe’s LoL hub. Set alerts for your favorite teams and champions.
Follow our X account for the latest content and coverage. Also, stay tuned to Strafe YouTube for exclusive interviews, press conferences, and more.
Featured image credit: Riot Games