Riot Games, Inc. is an American company that creates and publishes video games and organizes esports tournaments. It was started in September 2006 in Los Angeles by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill to make the game League of Legends. The company later created other games based on League of Legends and also made the first-person shooter game Valorant. In 2011, Riot Games was bought by a large Chinese company called Tencent. Riot Forge, a part of Riot Games, helped other developers create League of Legends spin-off games until it closed in January 2024. Riot Games worked with Fortiche to produce Arcane, a TV show inspired by the League of Legends universe.
Riot Games runs esports leagues for League of Legends and the Valorant Champions Tour. As of 2023, the company had 23 offices around the world. It sells corporate sponsorships, merchandise, and streaming rights for its games. Riot Games has been accused of having a harmful workplace environment, including claims of gender discrimination and sexual harassment. The company was criticized for using forced arbitration to handle these issues.
History
Brandon "Ryze" Beck and Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, the founders of Riot Games, became friends while living together at the University of Southern California. Both studied business there. Beck and Merrill noticed that many video game companies changed their focus too often, but they saw Defense of the Ancients as proof that games could be supported and made money over time. They also took ideas from Asian game designers who gave their games away for free at first and later charged for extra features.
Beck and Merrill asked family and angel investors for money, raising $1.5 million to start their company. Riot Games was created in September 2006 in Santa Monica, California. The first person they hired was Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, an early developer of DotA Allstars, a game that helped shape the MOBA genre. As they worked on League of Legends, they told investors their company would focus on e-commerce. Merrill said that some publishers were confused by the game’s lack of a single-player mode and its free-to-play model. Riot Games raised $8 million total from investors, including Benchmark and FirstMark Capital, as well as Tencent, a Chinese company. Tencent later became the distributor of League of Legends in China and eventually the parent company of Riot Games.
After six months of testing, Riot Games released League of Legends as a free-to-play game on October 27, 2009. Designers and leaders at Riot Games used player feedback from online forums to improve the game. In May 2010, Riot Games announced it would manage the game in Europe, moving its European office from Brighton to Dublin. In February 2011, Tencent invested $400 million for 93% of Riot Games. Tencent bought the remaining 7% in December 2015, though the price was not shared.
In 2012, Riot Games created a team of psychologists to address harassment in League of Legends. They introduced features like optional chat between players, explanations for bans, and a player tribunal to review bans. These changes reduced reported harassment by 30%, though some players and reporters questioned the effectiveness. By 2013, League of Legends was the most-played multiplayer PC game globally. By 2016, the game had over 100 million monthly players.
In 2015, Riot Games moved to a new building on a 20-acre campus in western Los Angeles. In March 2016, Riot Games bought Radiant Entertainment, a studio working on Rising Thunder and Stonehearth. Rising Thunder was canceled after the acquisition, and its team joined a new project. In October 2017, Beck and Merrill said they would return to game development, handing daily operations of League of Legends to Dylan Jadeja, Scott Gelb, and Nicolo Laurent. Gelb and Laurent later became COO and CEO, while Beck and Merrill became chairmen. By May 2018, Riot Games had 2,500 employees and offices in 24 countries.
In October 2019, Riot Games announced new projects: a mobile and console version of League of Legends called Wild Rift, a mobile version of Teamfight Tactics, and a digital card game called Legends of Runeterra, all set for 2020. The company also introduced three other games—Project A, Project L, and Project F—though details were limited. Project A later became Valorant, which launched in 2020.
In December 2019, Riot Games created Riot Forge, a publishing label led by Leanne Loombe. Riot Forge partnered with smaller studios to make League of Legends-related games. Two games, Ruined King and Convergence, were announced at The Game Awards 2019. In January 2020, Riot Tabletop was launched to create tabletop games, starting with Tellstones: King’s Gambit.
In April 2020, Riot Games acquired Hypixel Studios, which was working on Hytale, a sandbox game. Riot also announced a Singapore office to support its games. Jason Bunge became chief marketing officer in October 2020. In October 2021, Riot bought Kanga, a company that helped manage fan content and merchandise.
Riot Games worked with Fortiche, a French animation studio, to create Arcane, an animated series released on Netflix in 2021. The show was well-received and later released in China by Tencent. In March 2022, Riot invested in Fortiche, and two of its executives joined Fortiche’s board. Riot also hired executives from Netflix, Paramount, and HBO Max to develop films, TV shows, and music based on its games.
In October 2022, Riot bought Wargaming Sydney, a subsidiary of Wargaming, and renamed it Riot Sydney. The deal did not include rights to BigWorld, a game development tool.
In January 2023, Riot Games laid off 46 employees and suffered a cyberattack that stole source code for League of Legends and other games. The stolen data was sold online for $700,000. That year, Riot Forge released The Mageseeker and Song of Nunu. In September 2023, Dylan Jadeja became CEO.
In January 2024, Riot Games laid off 530 employees, about 11% of its workforce, and ended Riot Forge and its planned Twitch competitor, Riot Esports Network. Jadeja said the cuts were necessary to focus on long-term goals for players. In May 2024, the company was sued in a California court over its partnership with bankr.
Esports
Riot Games runs esports leagues around the world. These leagues include the League of Legends Championship Series, which has leagues in North America and Europe. In total, there are more than 100 teams in Riot Games' 12 regional leagues worldwide. Teams compete during a season divided into two parts. Teams earn points to qualify for two major international events: the Mid-Season Invitational and the League of Legends World Championship. The World Championship is the annual professional tournament that ends each season.
Between 2010 and 2011, Riot Games created new content for League of Legends. During this time, the company found out that people enjoyed watching the game. As a result, Riot Games created its own League of Legends esports leagues, which produce weekly broadcasts and set up a professional game schedule. After Riot Games' first world championship event in 2011, a small event at a conference in Sweden, the company decided to make its tournaments more like professional sports events. It invested in broadcasting equipment, hired sports programming producers, and trained pro gamers to be "TV-ready." In 2012, Riot Games held its tournament at the University of Southern California's Galen Center, offering $1 million in prize money. Since then, the company has held tournaments in Berlin, Seoul, Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Riot Games sells corporate sponsorships, merchandise, and rights to stream its esports leagues. In 2015, investors bought shares in teams and began building their own squads. Some team owners in Riot Games' leagues include the owners of the Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Dodgers, AOL co-founder Steve Case, and life coach Tony Robbins. Inc. said the growth of the leagues and high-profile ownership were reasons for naming Riot Games its 2016 Company of the Year. After debates about whether pro players and coaches should get a larger share of esports revenue and concerns about in-game changes before matches, Riot Games promised in 2016 to give more money to players and work more closely with teams. In 2017, Riot Games held the League of Legends World Championship in China, with the finals in Beijing. That same year, the company announced it would make its ten-team North American League of Legends Championship Series a franchise, which cost at least $10 million to enter.
In November 2020, Riot Games announced the first Valorant Champions Tour, a global competitive tournament for Valorant.
In 2021, Riot Games built three new "remote broadcast centers" in Asia, North America (Seattle), and Europe (Dublin) to improve its esports productions using a centralized system with regional hubs. These facilities can handle on-site productions and allow regional productions to connect to the centers' datacenters for remote work. The three locations were chosen because their time zones are each eight hours apart, allowing them to "work a full shift and then stop working to let the next facility take over." The first remote broadcast center in Dublin, Ireland, opened in July 2022 in a building that used to house the nightclub The Wright Venue in Swords. It has an IP-based infrastructure, six studios, and keeps the nightclub's disco ball, which was once the largest in Europe.
As part of its efforts to expand the LoL series, Riot Games partnered with the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in August 2021 for a seven-year deal. After FTX went bankrupt in November 2022, Riot Games used legal ways to end the FTX contract.
Criticism and controversies
In the first half of 2018, Kotaku interviewed about 28 former and current employees of Riot Games. Some employees said female workers faced discrimination. For example, they claimed that ideas from women were not always accepted, while similar ideas from men were. Some women were prepared for leadership roles but were later passed over for male hires. Employees described the workplace as having a "bro culture," which means a male-dominated environment. Other claims included receiving inappropriate images from coworkers and bosses, an email thread discussing inappropriate topics, and a list shared among senior staff that named female employees. Kotaku believed this culture may have developed because Riot historically focused on "core" gamers, who are often male, in both hiring and product design.
Some Riot employees told Kotaku the claims were false or already being addressed. For example, Oksana Kubushyna, head of the platform, said efforts to improve diversity and inclusion started nine months before the article was published. Joe Hixson, who leads communications for Riot Games, said the company recognized the problems and that all employees must be held accountable for the workplace environment.
After Kotaku’s article, more employees shared similar experiences, including claims of sexual harassment and being misgendered. Hixson told Gamasutra the company was taking action and said seniority would not affect disciplinary actions for misconduct. By August 2018, Riot announced seven steps to improve its culture, including a "Culture and Diversity & Inclusion Initiative." The company hired Frances X. Frei as a senior adviser to help with these efforts.
In response to the article, Riot held a session at PAX West 2018 for women and non-binary game developers, which excluded men. Some Riot employees defended this as necessary to address the male-dominated industry, but others criticized it. Riot employees also faced backlash, including harassment and threats. After a shooting at a video game tournament in August 2018, Riot planned to increase security at events. Two employees who tried to address feedback from the PAX event were fired or left the company. Riot said these departures were not related to its Diversity Initiative.
In December 2018, Riot’s CEO, Nicolo Laurent, said the company’s COO, Scott Gelb, was suspended for two months without pay for misconduct. Riot stated it was investigating other cases but would not discuss them publicly. By January 2019, Riot updated its company values to reflect the issues raised in the Kotaku report. In February 2019, the company hired Angela Roseboro as chief diversity officer to improve inclusivity.
About three months after the article, one current and one former employee sued Riot, claiming gender discrimination in pay and positions and a "sexually-hostile" workplace. The lawsuit aimed to be a class-action case, seeking damages for unpaid wages and other issues. Three other employees later filed similar lawsuits. Riot tried to dismiss two suits, saying the women had agreed to arbitration instead of court action. Some employees threatened to walk out, feeling the company had not improved transparency or addressed issues.
A proposed settlement for the class-action lawsuit in August 2019 included at least $10 million for female employees over the past five years. Riot said the settlement was fair, but California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) believed it was too low, estimating the case could be worth up to $400 million. DFEH and the state’s labor division filed complaints against the settlement, urging the court to reject it. The class withdrew the $10 million settlement in February 2020 and hired new lawyers. Riot said the $10 million amount was fair but remained committed to resolving issues.
In August 2021, DFEH accused Riot of interfering with its investigations by telling employees they could not speak directly to the department. The court ordered Riot to inform employees they could contact DFEH, but Riot had not yet complied. By the end of 2021, Riot agreed to a $100 million settlement with DFEH and employees, with $80 million going to impacted workers. The settlement was approved in July 2022. Riot will pay 1,548 female employees between $2,500 and $40,000 each.
In January 2021, Riot was sued by Laurent’s former assistant for sexual discrimination, including inappropriate language and labor mistreatment. Three members of Riot’s board of directors began an investigation into Laurent’s behavior.
Litigation
In 2017, Riot Games started a legal case against Moonton Technology Co., the company that created the mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. Riot Games said the game copied parts of League of Legends, another game they developed. The case was first rejected in California because the court believed the case should be handled in another location. Later, Tencent, which supports Riot Games, filed a new legal case in China. In July 2018, a Chinese court ruled in favor of Tencent, giving them $2.9 million in compensation.
In October 2019, Riot Games filed another legal case against Riot Squad Esports LLC, an esports organization based in Chicago that was created in March 2019. Riot Games claimed that Riot Squad used the name "Riot" without permission, which violates trademark laws.
Games
In October 2016, Riot Games released Mechs vs. Minions, a team-based tabletop game inspired by League of Legends. Riot's first tabletop game under the Riot Tabletop series was Tellstones: King's Gambit, a game where players try to trick each other, available for two or four players and released in 2020.
In August 2025, Riot Games released Riftbound, a multiplayer trading card game that takes place in the world of Runeterra.