Riot Games facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Riot Games, Inc.

Logo used since 2022
Riot Games' West Los Angeles headquarters (pictured in December 2023)
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	20 offices (2023)
Key people	Brandon Beck (co-chairman) Marc Merrill (co-chairman) Dylan Jadeja (CEO) 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 Hypixel Studios Riot Sydney
Primary ASN 6507

Riot Games, Inc. is an American company that makes and publishes video games. They also organize big esports tournaments. The company is based in Los Angeles, California.

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 the popular shooting game Valorant. In 2011, a big 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 make spin-off games based on League of Legends. Riot Forge closed down in January 2024. Riot Games also worked with an animation studio called Fortiche to create Arcane. This is a TV show based on the League of Legends world.

Riot Games runs 12 international League of Legends esports leagues. They also organize the League of Legends World Championship and the Valorant Champions Tour. In 2023, the company had 20 offices around the world. They earn money by selling sponsorships, merchandise, and streaming rights for their leagues.

The Story of Riot Games

Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, who started Riot Games, became friends in college. They both studied business. They thought that many game developers moved on from games too quickly. They saw that games like Defense of the Ancients could be supported for a long time. They also liked how some Asian game designers offered games for free. Players would then pay for extra items in the game.

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

As they worked on League of Legends, they told investors about their idea. They wanted to create a game company that focused on online sales. 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 about $8 million in funding. This included money from companies 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 bought Riot Games.

After six months of testing, Riot Games released League of Legends. It was a free-to-play game launched on October 27, 2009. Their game designers and leaders talked with players online. They used player feedback to make changes to the game. In May 2010, Riot Games announced they would handle the game's distribution in Europe themselves. They moved their European office to Dublin. In February 2011, Tencent invested $400 million in Riot Games. This gave Tencent 93 percent ownership of the company. Tencent bought the rest of the company on December 16, 2015.

In 2012, Riot Games started a "player behavior team" to help with bad behavior in League of Legends. This team included psychologists. Riot Games tried different ways to fix problems. They allowed players to chat with opponents if they wanted. They also told banned players why they were banned. They even created a group of players to help decide on bans. These efforts led to a 30 percent drop in reported bad behavior. By 2013, League of Legends was the most played multiplayer PC game in the world. By 2016, over 100 million people played the game each month.

Riot Games moved to a new, larger campus in western Los Angeles in 2015. In March 2016, Riot Games bought Radiant Entertainment. This company was working on two games at the time. One of those games was stopped after Riot bought the company. The team then started working on a new project. On October 13, 2017, Beck and Merrill said they would focus more on making new games. They wanted to create new experiences for players.

Beck and Merrill gave the daily management of League of Legends to three long-time employees. These were Dylan Jadeja, Scott Gelb, and Nicolo Laurent. Later, Gelb became the Chief Operating Officer (COO). Laurent became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Beck and Merrill became the chairmen of Riot Games. In May 2018, Riot Games had 2,500 employees. They had 24 offices around the world.

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 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 included Project A (a shooting game), Project L (a fighting game), and Project F (a multiplayer game). 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 part of the company that worked with smaller game studios. These studios would create games based on League of Legends. Two games from Riot Forge were announced in 2019. These were Ruined King: A League of Legends Story and Convergence: A League of Legends Story. Another part of the company, Riot Tabletop, was announced in January 2020. It was created to make tabletop games. The first one was Tellstones: King's Gambit, released in 2020.

Riot bought Hypixel Studios in April 2020. They had been helping this studio for a year and a half. They wanted to help them publish Hytale, a block-based sandbox game. Also in April, Riot said they would open an office in Singapore. Riot Games Singapore helps with existing games and develops new ones. In October 2020, Jason Bunge became Riot Games' chief marketing officer. In October 2021, the company bought Kanga. This company helped with fan clubs, merchandise, and content.

Riot Games worked with a French animation studio called Fortiche. Together, they released an animated series called Arcane. The show came out in November 2021 on Netflix and in China. It was very popular and got good reviews. In March 2022, Riot Games announced they had invested in Fortiche. Because of this, two Riot leaders joined Fortiche's board of directors. That same month, Riot also hired people from other entertainment companies. They wanted to develop movies, TV shows, and music based on their game worlds.

In October 2022, Riot bought Wargaming Sydney. This company had created a technology called BigWorld. Riot renamed it Riot Sydney. In January 2023, Riot Games had to let go of 46 employees. In the same month, they had a security issue. Hackers tried to steal information for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and an anti-cheat system. In 2023, several games from Riot Forge were released. These included The Mageseeker and Song of Nunu. In September 2023, Dylan Jadeja became the company's CEO.

In January 2024, Riot announced they would be making some changes to the company. They let go of about 11% of their employees. They also decided to close Riot Forge and stop their planned streaming service. The CEO, Dylan Jadeja, said these changes were needed to help the company focus on important projects for players in the long term.

Esports Tournaments

The stage for the 2017 League of Legends World Championship finals in Beijing National Stadium

Riot Games organizes esports leagues all over the world. This includes the League of Legends Championship Series. This series has leagues in North America and Europe. In total, there are over 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. These are 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.

Between 2010 and 2011, the Riot Games team made new content for League of Legends. During this time, they realized that people also loved watching the game being played. So, Riot Games started its own League of Legends esports leagues. These leagues have weekly broadcasts and a professional game schedule. Riot Games' first world championship event was small. It was held at a conference in Sweden in 2011. After that, the company decided to make their tournaments like professional sports events. They bought broadcasting equipment and hired sports TV producers. 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. Riot Games has since held tournaments in places like Berlin, Seoul, and New York City.

The company earns money by selling sponsorships to other companies. They also sell merchandise and streaming rights for their esports league. In 2015, investors started buying parts of teams. They also began creating their own teams. Some of the team owners in Riot Games' leagues also own famous sports teams. In 2016, Inc. magazine named Riot Games their Company of the Year. This was because of the growth of their leagues and the famous owners. 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 they would make their North American League of Legends Championship Series a franchise. It cost 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). This helps them make their esports productions bigger. The facilities can do live shows. They also let regional productions connect to their data centers. This allows them to use the facilities' equipment for remote shows. The three locations were chosen because their time zones are eight hours apart. This means they can "work a full shift and then pass control to the next facility." The first center in Dublin, Ireland, opened in July 2022. It has modern internet-based equipment and six studios.

Lawsuits

In 2017, Riot Games sued Moonton Technology Co.. Moonton developed the mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Riot Games said that Mobile Legends copied League of Legends. The case was first dismissed in California. Then, Tencent, on behalf of Riot Games, filed a new lawsuit in a Chinese court. In July 2018, the Chinese court ruled in Tencent's favor. It ordered Moonton to pay $2.9 million in damages.

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. It's a bluffing game for two or four players, released in 2020.

See also

In Spanish: Riot Games para niños