In 2018, the most popular competitive League of Legends tournament was watched by 99.6 million unique viewers, with concurrent viewership reaching a peak of 44 million years. The game’s popularity continues to grow despite the fact that it has been around for 10 years, an incredibly long time in an industry that is largely defined by consumer interest shifting to the newest hot products. I believe that League of Legends’ longevity is in part due to the complex strategies that its game design allows for. Unlike games like Fortnite, the game requires players on a team to fulfill different roles, where each role has a number of suitable “champions” with unique abilities. Furthermore, there is no linear path to the end goal of conquering the other team’s base: killing enemy players and non-player characters both give you money that can strengthen your champion, but factors such as timing, positioning, and working together as a team also matter. As a result, in addition to the normal e-sports display of mechanical skill, competitive League of Legends is appealing in that it showcases the most clever strategies out of the countless ways in which the game can be played.
