The decision to make League of Legends a free game and monetize the sale of skins is in part responsible for the success of Riot Games’ game. The developer opted for the free to play model long before it became a trend in the video game industry and was able to overcome some clichés that associated free products with a lack of quality or over-selling mechanics in which you pay to win*. However, it was not only an interesting decision for the consumers, but also for the studio which produces historical figures every year.
*This statement was quite true at the start of the game, where it was possible to obtain the majority of champions with a decent amount of play time. However today it seems hard enough to get the entire cast without paying a dime, given all the characters released in 12 years. We nevertheless recall thatit is not necessary to have all the champions to reach the top of the SoloQ leaderboard or to have fun on the game, just to have the ones you like the most. Similarly, it is still simple to unlock access to ranked mode which requires a lvl 30 account and 20 different champions (free rotation not included) without having to take out the credit card. League of Legends is always a free to play without abusive transaction from our point of view, provided you accept that it is not possible to quickly unlock all the champions.
The figures communicated by Riot
On different occasions, Riot Games has revealed how much money specific skins have made. The following table will list some of these public data. It is important to know that this table and the numbers that compose it, only take into account a given period, generally the one where the skin is highlighted. Some skins have been on sale for years, and have therefore finally brought in more, but we only include here the figures given at a given moment.
Championship Zed (Skin + Ward) | 2016 | 11,760,000 |
 Championship Ashe (Skin + Ward) | 2017 | 10,787,880 |
 Championship Kha Zix (Skin + Ward) | 2018 | 16,800,000 |
 Cho Gath of the Dark Pulsar | 2019 | 6,000,000 |
 Karma of the Order of the Lotus | 2020 | 6,000,000 |
 Ornn Sylvester | 2020 | 7,000,000 |
 Olaf Sentinel | 2021 | 5,800,000 |
It should be kept in mind that these official data correspond to special events in which Riot Games tried to involve the community, and if they can give an idea of the money made by Riot Games from the sale of skins in League of Legends, it is not certain that each skin has been so successful. There’s also a big difference depending on which character gets the cosmetic, which can vary the amount of millions of dollars. For instance, the latest data from Karma, Cho’Gath, Ornn or Olaf should be taken with a grain of saltbecause even if part of the income from the sale of the skins were donated to charities like the Taliyah one currently available, none of these champions are among the most beloved by the community.
Nevertheless, the trend indicated in the table could be adapted to reality. Although League of Legends has brought many players back and the community has grown with the release of Arcane or other Riot Games video games, more and more skins are released every year . In this way and even if the total income of the video game could be higher from year to year, it is possible that this income is obtained by selling a higher total amount of skins and not as individual records for a given skin. Even so, it is insisted that the comparison is difficult due to the difference in popularity of the characters.
Knowing the turnover of the skins of Lux, Ezreal, Yasuo or other of the most popular characters in League of Legends would be very interesting data. However, the company is keeping the total amounts generated from skins on players’ favorite champions a secret. They confessed that they release more skins for these champions because they generate a greater amount of money, but not how much of a difference there is compared to the rest of the heroes. In any case, and being very careful, it seems that the average level easily exceeds 6 million euros during their launch month. With around 140 skins released each year, the amounts generated are astronomical.
The numbers for the year
According to the various information provided, it is estimated thatbetween 2015 and 2020, the sale of skins would have brought in an average of 1,700 million euros per year to Riot Games. To this source of income, we must still add the profits made through event passes, other cosmetics and even emotes or collaboration agreements between Riot Games and other companies. Moreover, the company has released more games and its profits continue to increase thanks to them. They’ve even acquired an outside studio that’s making their own version of Minecraft, and overall things seem to be going really well for the American studio.
esport-lol
Prevention is better than cure. While the global pandemic is not yet completely resolved and there are still cases that are wandering everywhere, Riot Games has decided to take precautions. League of Legends Worlds are changing their destinations a bit.