As strange as it sounds, League of Legends is nearly 15 years old. In many ways, the industry standard-bearer in multiplayer PC gaming and esports, once a haven for young, competitive players, is now an “old” title—and it has a player base age to match.
At least, that was the gist given by League‘s leadership team in a private media event held on Riot’s Los Angeles campus. Make what you will of it, but the player base is getting older, and with that age comes a different set of challenges. “It’s not inherently a bad thing,” game director Pu Liu said in answer to a question about the age of League’s players going up after confirming the assertion was true. “If you have a game that retains players really, really well, and you have a consistent inflow of new players year over year, [the player base] should age up.”