The sudden popularity of Arcane – a Netflix show set in the League Of Legends universe – has caused a very sudden uptick in fans playing the starring characters in League Of Legends.
Since Arcane launched – and knocked Squid Game off the platform’s top spot in 37 countries – fans have rushed to play the show’s stars in League Of Legends.
This is visible via the pick rate metrics for each champion – a statistic that shows the percentage of League Of Legends games that a champion is played.
According to analytics site LoLalytics, Jayce has received the most dramatic spike in pick rate, soaring from a tiny pick rate of 3.57 per cent on November 5 to a whopping 11.85 per cent on November 9. Likewise, Jinx – who was picked in 11.85 per cent of games the day before Arcane dropped – has since been played in 16.18 percent of all games. Vi has also benefited from Arcane‘s popularity, with her appearance in League Of Legends games almost doubling since the show’s debut.
It’s also likely that players have been picking these champions more often because of Riot Games handing out free Arcane skins for Jayce, Vi, Caitlyn, and Jinx.
Thank you to our global community for helping Runeterra reach new heights! 180 million players in October and still growing! pic.twitter.com/7w9goYBeBM
— Riot Games #RiotXArcane 💥 (@riotgames) November 1, 2021
While these may not seem like huge rates of play, these numbers are impressive when paired with League Of Legends‘ massive player base. In October alone, Riot revealed that games in the League Of Legends universe (which includes Wild Rift and Legends Of Runeterra) hit 180million players. In the last ten years, these games have attracted “more than 600million players”.
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It’s also worth pointing out that the massive popularity surge for champions like Jayce – who can be fairly difficult to play – has not particularly gone well for these players. The win rates of both Jayce and Vi have plummeted since the launch of Arcane, explained by the masses of new (and potentially inexperienced) players who are picking up their favourite character from the show.
In other news, Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studio has said the game is currently “far more difficult than intended”.