Marta J. July 25, 2019
League of Legends’ player base has been continuously growing over the years. However, this hasn’t stopped the game’s publisher, Riot Games, from offering rewards to encourage lapsed players to return.
Although Riot hasn’t published official data on their active player base in recent years, analysts estimate the game has achieved 100 million active players this year alone. Regardless, Riot is now taking the initiative to bring inactive players back to the fold.
Riot is doing so by emailing these players a “boost to break the League lull.” All that players need to do is play a single game to be rewarded a random unowned champion worth 4,800 Blue Essence, one random skin for the champion they receive, and a double experience boost that will last three days.
In the past, the need to help motivate lapsed players was often discussed on forums such as Reddit or League of Legends’ official message boards. Players that have entirely left the game, or were just coming back for occasional limited game modes, often stated there aren’t many features pulling them back to the game more regularly.
It’s often the atmosphere of the in-game chat among players that pushes these players away from League. Even though Riot keeps working on solving that issue, it seems to be a persistent problem in online gaming communities as a whole. Once the players cool off and decide to return to the game, they face a skill gap due to frequent balance changes, reworks, and the consistent releases of new champions.
As discussed on the forums, returning players would love to see a simple in-client overview of the changes they’ve missed.
Regardless, the rewards Riot is now offering are sure to bring quite a few players back, at least for a requisite game so that they can claim them.
Players have a deadline to claim the rewards by August 4.
An interesting note to take from the email is that the rewards can be claimed once a player participates in a single game of any mode except for Teamfight Tactics. Potentially, this shows League’s players have turned to its autobattler game mode and are leaving Summoner’s Rift behind, so Riot could be looking for ways to balance that out.