HOW MANY LOL PLAYERS ARE ON EACH SERVER? 2019 UPDATED
How many people play League of Legends is a question many people ask. It’s currently the most-watched game not only in the multiplayer online battle arena genre but overall. Without a doubt, it’s a popular game—but how much exactly?
I want to preface this article with a note that only Riot Games has accurate player count data! We are limited to the information they release when it comes to total population size. However, we can rely on ranked API data to give us some idea of the general trend. Please keep in mind that this data does not include the largest servers, which are located in China and operated by Tencent.
If you are interested in overall LoL population size including China check our article here.
LOL Server Population in 2024
The League of Legends player base in 2024 presents an interesting landscape when compared to previous years, particularly 2018 and 2021. Here's a summary of the ranked League of Legends player distribution across servers starting from 2018 and ending at Split 2, 2024:
| Server | 2018 | 2021 | 2024 |
| Korea | 2,249,606 | 3,864,237 | 2,570,426 |
| EUW | 2,010,943 | 2,961,572 | 2,314,741 |
| NA | 1,232,157 | 1,514,633 | 1,083,560 |
| EUNE | 1,110,123 | 1,507,131 | 1,038,321 |
| Brazil | 952,249 | 1,306,556 | 867,175 |
| LAS + LAN | 841,389 | 1,458,574 | 1,042,101 |
| Turkey | 574,592 | 641,922 | 509,946 |
| OCE | 144,718 | 163,676 | 129,295 |
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The Numbers what do they mean?
As we get into the end of 2024 the player population in League of Legends is still a hot topic in the community. Many are saying the game is “dying” but the numbers tell a different story. By comparing the ranked player populations from 2018, 2021 and 2024 across the major servers we can see how League of Legends has changed over the years.
The 2024 ranked population numbers are: Korea has the most players with over 2.5 million, followed by EUW with 2.3 million. NA and EUNE have declined significantly and are now at around 1 million each. Brazil, LAS + LAN, Turkey and OCE are also trending downwards. But keep in mind these numbers are from 3 months into the ranked season (due to 3 splits per season), unlike 2018 and 2021 where the data was collected over a longer period. This shorter time frame likely deflates the 2024 numbers by 10-15%.
Post Pandemic Shift
The decline from 2021 is expected since those numbers were inflated by the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdowns gaming surged globally and League of Legends saw a big spike in player activity. With life going back to normal in the following years many players now have less time to game and League’s population is reflecting that. Despite the drop 2024 numbers are still higher than 2018 pre pandemic numbers so the game has retained most of the extra players.
Regional Trends and Issues
Regional data shows some interesting trends. Korea and EUW are still the biggest servers and are the hubs for competitive play. NA and EUNE are declining sharper, maybe interest is waning or other games are competing for players in these regions. LAS + LAN in Latin America is more stable, the game is still popular in that region.
Riot’s crackdown on bots and smurf accounts since 2023 has likely contributed to the lower player count especially in regions with high number of alternate accounts. While this gives us a more accurate picture of active players, it also means less accounts contribute to the ranked population numbers.
Ranked Splits
One of the factors that affected the 2024 player count is Riot’s introduction of 3 ranked splits per year. While intended to keep players engaged throughout the year this has been met with mixed feedback. Many players especially those with limited time find it frustrating to do placement matches multiple times a year. This might have discouraged some from playing ranked and contributed to the decline.
Beyond Ranked: The League Ecosystem
Remember ranked numbers only tell part of the story. League of Legends is a big ecosystem that goes beyond ranked games. Casual modes like ARAM, team based events and esports are still going strong. Riot’s focus on expanding the ecosystem with games like Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift and Valorant has probably drawn some players away from the ranked grind but they are still within the Riot Games ecosystem.
The ranked player count in 2024 is down from the pandemic peak but League of Legends is not dying. The game has settled at a strong player base of over 10 million ranked accounts outside of China. When looked at in perspective the numbers show League is one of the most played and longest running competitive games in the world. Whether it’s ranked grind, casual play or esports fandom League of Legends is still a part of the gaming landscape.
It's also worth noting that the 2024 World Championship Finals was a new record for esports, the most watched match in competitive gaming history. The Bilibili Gaming vs T1 series hit 6.94 million peak viewers, only the second time an esports event has ever gone over 6 million.
This year’s Worlds not only broke global records but also showed the game’s global audience. English streams peaked at 1.9 million, Vietnamese at 1.11 million (a new record for the region), and other languages like Portuguese, French, Swedish and Czech also reached new highs.
And the series was done. T1 won their 5th Worlds, Faker was the MVP. Both teams fought for the title and Worlds proved again League of Legends is the king of esports.
League of Legends Player Count in 2017 (infographic)
It's a question quite a lot of people seem to ask, yet there hasn't been any hard data on how many LoL players are on each server - until now! We've collected data from a variety of sources who use the Riot API (sources listed at the bottom of the 2015 infographic) to create this image. The image shows the percentage of players on each server (ranked players only) from a sample size of over 10,000,000 League of Legends players!
| Region | EUW | Korea | EUNE | NA | BR | TUR | LAN | LAS | RUS | OCE | JAP |
| Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Percentage | 24.9% | 23.5% | 13.6% | 10.8% | 9.10% | 6.33% | 4.27% | 4.09% | 1.38% | 1.32% | 0.71% |
DIFFERENCES FROM PREVIOUS YEARS
The main differences in the number of players for each League of Legends region between 2017 and 2016 is the jump in EUW players, compared to Korea. Also North America has continued to shrink going from 16.6% in 2015 to just 10.8% in 2017.
This could be explained by the growth of League of Legends in the outer regions such as Japan, Russia and Latin America North and South.
We released this infographic originally in 2015 but since then Riot have added some new servers. We've kept you up to date by updating our infographic with some slick new graphics and the new numbers. We got this data using the number of players that have been ranked on each server. We're going to make the assumption that each server has a similar competitiveness which makes our percentages very close. The data here comes from over 11 million players worldwide. Liked the old one? Don't worry you can still see it below! If you're looking for the original post then you can find it below here. This data was gathered in 2015 and since the addition of the 11th region (Japan) it's now out of date.
HOW MANY LOL PLAYERS ARE ON EACH SERVER INFOGRAPHIC (2016)
THE MOST TO LEAST ACTIVE LEAGUE SERVERS (2016) ARE AS FOLLOWS:
| Region | Korea | EUW | NA | EUNE | BR | TUR | LAS | LAN | OCE | RUS | JAP |
| Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Percentage | 26.20% | 23.56% | 14.63% | 11.48% | 8.10% | 5.10% | 3.68% | 3.60% | 1.71% | 1.27% | 0.67% |
HOW MANY League of Legends PLAYERS ARE ON EACH SERVER INFOGRAPHIC (2015)
Click here to download the full, high-quality image.
THE ORDER OF THE MOST TO LEAST POPULAR SERVERS (2015) ARE AS FOLLOWS:
| Region | Korea | EUW | NA | EUNE | BR | TUR | LAS | LAN | OCE | RUS |
| Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Percentage | 26.2% | 24.3% | 16.6% | 12.2% | 6.8% | 4.5% | 3.3% | 3.0% | 1.8% | 1.3% |
League continues to evolve as a video game over the years. It's hard to comprehend how much Riot Games has changed over time, and yet the general spirit of the game remains the same. However the monthly player base fluctuates and however the gaming industry changes, we are confident that it will remain a generational game, similar to World of Warcraft, and continue to be a pillar of the internet community. Would you teach your kids to play the game? We sure would!
Are you wondering why so many people play League? We have quite a few theories!
