League of Legends: “Real Deal, Real Talk”

Is it hard to realize the most played game in the industry today is a game far and few of us outside of the competitive gaming world has knowledge of? YES! Yet here we are and the numbers are out. Dominating the polls is the far from the Little Engine That Could, League of Legends, that’s been captivating audiences throughout the gaming world. This free-to-play title has been built into a game that not only has dominated the charts in hours played, but into a game generally regarded as being developed the right way. You can check out the numbers here.

League of Legends

League of Legends

Some games have that initial appeal where you get your fix, squash some heads, enjoy your time, but in the end fail to keep you enthralled and engulfed for the long haul like LoL has. League of Legends is real time strategy based gameplay that asks gamers to be quick with your keyboard but clever enough to have you think about your future moves. The game took inspirations from Frozen Throne gameplay and capitalized on it by adding more characters, spells and options for players and the end result is a game that is starting the dominate the competitive gaming field. Why is it so popular? I would say the versatility, with so many characters with their own skills that could be books of their own in terms of strategy you end up with scenarios with opponents that are almost always new and unique.

League of Legends is Not Your Mother’s RTS

What’s even more eye popping is that this game has been out almost three years and is gaining an even larger following day by day. How many games can you say that about? Possibly a couple, but not with the impact that LoL has and despite some balance issues, and immature players, it doesn’t stop new gamers from picking up this title. Watch an MLG either here or overseas, chances are this bad boy is on the gaming list rundown and for good reason. If you haven’t picked up this game up for curiosity’s sake, grab it now, it’s realatively cheap at the bargain price of free – but be warned as the learning curve is steep, but the satisfaction is 10 fold. Probably why League of Legends has had gamers logging in over 1 billion hours of gameplay according to DFC Intelligence, in conjunction with Xfire. Note that second place belongs to WoW, which is on the tail end of its career at around 600 million.

Add it all together and simply based on the intelligence report we can conclude that League of Legends is doing something right in the gaming landscape, especially considering it has only been out for approximately three years.

Carl Armstrong

Carl Armstrong

Associate Editor at Gaming Illustrated
Carl Armstrong has been with GI for over four years, serving as a review writer, on-site reporter and Associate Editor. He's worked as an award winning radio show producer for The Mighty 1090 sports station, Xtrasports 1360 and was the executive technical director for the San Diego Chargers radio network from 2008-2012.
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