Riot Games facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Riot Games, Inc.

Logo used since 2022
Riot Games' West Los Angeles headquarters (pictured in January 2025)
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	September 2006; 18 years ago (2006-09) in Santa Monica, California, US
Founders	Brandon Beck Marc Merrill
Headquarters	Los Angeles , US
Number of locations	23 offices (2025)
Key people	Brandon Beck (co-chairman) Marc Merrill (co-chairman) Hoby Darling (president) Mark Sottosanti (CFO)
Products	League of Legends League of Legends: Wild Rift Legends of Runeterra Teamfight Tactics Valorant
Number of employees	4,200+ (2024)
Parent	Tencent (2011–present)
Divisions	Riot Tabletop
Subsidiaries	Radiant Entertainment Riot Sydney
Primary ASN 6507

Riot Games, Inc. is a company from America that makes and publishes video games. They also organize big video game competitions called esports tournaments. The company is based in Los Angeles.

Riot Games was started in September 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill. Their main goal was to create League of Legends. Since then, they have made many other games related to League of Legends. They also created Valorant, which is a popular first-person shooter game. In 2011, a large Chinese company called Tencent bought Riot Games.

Riot Games used to have a part of their company called Riot Forge. This part worked with other game developers to create new games based on the League of Legends world. Riot Forge stopped its work in January 2024. Riot Games also worked with a company called Fortiche to make Arcane. This is a TV show based on the League of Legends universe.

Riot Games runs major esports leagues for League of Legends and the Valorant Champions Tour. The company has offices in 23 different places around the world. They earn money by selling sponsorships, merchandise, and rights to stream their game leagues.

How Riot Games Started

Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill became friends when they were roommates in college. They both studied business. They believed that many game companies moved on from games too quickly. They thought games could be supported and earn money for a long time. They were inspired by Asian game designers who offered games for free. Players could then buy extra items or perks within the game.

Beck and Merrill got money from family and early investors to start their company. They raised about $1.5 million. Riot Games officially began in September 2006 in Santa Monica, California. One of the first people they hired was Steve Feak. He was an early developer of DotA Allstars, a game that helped create the MOBA game style.

As they worked on League of Legends, they told investors about their idea. They wanted to be a game company that focused on selling things directly to players online. Merrill said that other game publishers were confused. They didn't understand why the game didn't have a single-player mode. They also didn't get the idea of a free-to-play game.

Riot Games received several rounds of funding, totaling about $8 million. This included money from investment firms like Benchmark and FirstMark Capital. The Chinese company Tencent also invested. Tencent later became the company that distributed League of Legends in China. Eventually, Tencent became the owner of Riot Games.

League of Legends Launch

After six months of testing, Riot Games released League of Legends on October 27, 2009. It was a free-to-play game. The game designers and leaders of the company talked with players online. They used player feedback to make changes to the game.

On May 10, 2010, Riot Games announced they would handle the game's distribution in Europe themselves. To do this, they moved their European office from Brighton to Dublin. In February 2011, Tencent invested $400 million. This gave Tencent a 93 percent ownership in Riot Games. Tencent bought the rest of the company on December 16, 2015. The price was not shared.

In 2012, Riot Games started a "player behavior team." This team included experts who helped make League of Legends a better place for players. They worked to reduce bad behavior in the game. Their methods included letting players choose to chat with opponents. They also told banned players why they were banned. They even created a group of players to help decide on bans. These efforts helped reduce reports of bad behavior.

By 2013, League of Legends was the most played multiplayer PC game in the world. By 2016, it had over 100 million players each month.

Company Growth and New Games

In 2015, Riot Games moved to a new, larger campus in western Los Angeles. In March 2016, Riot Games bought Radiant Entertainment. This company was working on two games, Rising Thunder and Stonehearth. Rising Thunder was stopped after the purchase. Its team started working on a new project for Riot.

On October 13, 2017, Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill announced they would focus more on making new games. They wanted to create new experiences for players and esports fans. They handed over the daily running of the League of Legends team to three long-time employees. These were Dylan Jadeja, Scott Gelb, and Nicolo Laurent. They became the new leaders of Riot Games. Beck and Merrill became the company's chairmen. By May 2018, Riot Games had 2,500 employees and 24 offices worldwide.

In October 2019, Riot Games announced several new games. These included League of Legends: Wild Rift for mobile phones and consoles. They also announced a mobile version of Teamfight Tactics. Another new game was Legends of Runeterra, a digital card game. All three were planned for release in 2020. The company also hinted at other games. These were Project A (a shooting game), Project L (a fighting game with League of Legends characters), and Project F (a multiplayer game in the world of Runeterra). Project A was later revealed as Valorant. It was released on June 2, 2020.

In December 2019, Riot Games announced Riot Forge. This was a publishing group that worked with smaller game studios. They helped these studios create new games set in the League of Legends world. Two games from Riot Forge were announced in 2019: Ruined King: A League of Legends Story and Convergence: A League of Legends Story. In January 2020, Riot Tabletop was announced. This division would make tabletop games. The first one was Tellstones: King's Gambit, released in 2020.

Riot Games bought Hypixel Studios in April 2020. They had been helping this studio for a year and a half to publish Hytale, a block-based sandbox game. In April, Riot also said they would open an office in Singapore. This office would support existing games and help develop new ones. In October 2021, Riot bought Kanga, a company that helped with fan communities and merchandise.

Riot Games worked with a French animation studio called Fortiche to create an animated series, Arcane. The show was released in November 2021 on Netflix and was very popular. In March 2022, Riot Games invested in Fortiche. This meant Riot leaders joined Fortiche's board. Riot also hired people from other entertainment companies to help make movies, TV shows, and music based on their game worlds.

In October 2022, Riot bought Wargaming Sydney. This company had created a game technology called BigWorld. Riot renamed it Riot Sydney. In January 2023, Riot Games made some adjustments to its team. In the same month, they had a cyberattack where game code was stolen. In 2023, several games from Riot Forge were released, including The Mageseeker and Song of Nunu. In September 2023, Dylan Jadeja became the CEO of the company.

In January 2024, Riot announced more company changes, affecting about 11% of its team. They also decided to stop the Riot Forge effort. The CEO, Dylan Jadeja, explained that these changes were needed for the company's long-term future. In June 2025, Riot Games announced the closure of Hypixel Studios. This meant the game Hytale was canceled because it couldn't be finished as planned.

Esports Competitions

The stage for the 2017 League of Legends World Championship finals between SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy in the Beijing National Stadium

Riot Games organizes esports leagues all over the world. This includes the League of Legends Championship Series in North America and Europe. There are more than 100 teams in Riot Games' 12 regional leagues. Teams play throughout a season, which is split into two parts. Teams earn points to qualify for two big international events: the Mid-Season Invitational and the League of Legends World Championship. The World Championship is the biggest professional tournament at the end of each season.

Around 2010 and 2011, Riot Games realized that people loved watching League of Legends being played. So, Riot Games created its own esports leagues. These leagues have weekly broadcasts and a professional game schedule. After Riot Games' first world championship in 2011, they decided to make their tournaments like professional sports events. They invested in broadcasting equipment and hired people who produced sports shows. They also trained professional gamers to be ready for TV.

In 2012, Riot Games held its tournament at the University of Southern California. They offered $1 million in prize money. Since then, Riot Games has held tournaments in many big cities and famous venues.

The company sells sponsorships to other businesses. They also sell merchandise and the rights to stream their esports leagues. In 2015, investors started buying parts of teams and building their own esports squads. Many owners of famous sports teams also own teams in Riot Games' leagues. These include owners from the Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Houston Rockets.

In 2017, Riot Games held the League of Legends World Championship in China. The finals took place in Beijing. That same year, the company announced that its North American League of Legends Championship Series would become a franchise system. This meant teams would pay at least $10 million to join.

In November 2020, Riot Games announced the first Valorant Champions Tour. This is the global competition for Valorant.

In 2021, Riot started building three new "remote broadcast centers." These are in Asia, North America (Seattle), and Europe (Dublin). They help Riot make their esports shows even bigger and better. These centers allow different regions to connect and use the same technology for their broadcasts. The three locations were chosen because their time zones are eight hours apart. This allows them to pass control of productions from one center to the next. The first center in Dublin, Ireland, opened in July 2022.

Games by Riot Games

Minigames

Riot Forge Games

Tabletop Games

In October 2016, Riot Games released Mechs vs. Minions. This is a cooperative tabletop game based on League of Legends. Riot's first tabletop game under Riot Tabletop was Tellstones: King's Gambit. This is a bluffing game for two or four players, released in 2020.

See also

In Spanish: Riot Games para niños