Is Riot Games Replacing LoL with VALORANT?

Many fans have been speculating that Riot Games is investing more resources in developing and promoting VALORANT than League of Legends because they plan to move on from their signature title. While the probability of this happening is extremely low, it is definitely true that VALORANT is receiving more love from Riot Games than League of Legends. Let’s take a look at the reason Riot Games is doing this and why we think VALORANT isn’t replacing LoL anytime soon.

VALORANT Promotion Far Exceeds League of Legends

It’s no secret that Riot Games has been promoting VALORANT more than League of Legends for the past year with more events, exposure, and content creator support. The VALORANT community has also been growing exponentially with social media and forums being extremely active every day. League of Legends also had the same level of activity during its peak in 2014-2017. Unfortunately, League of Legends isn’t as hot of a topic today despite it being one of the most popular titles in gaming.

Riot Games has been releasing a lot of promotional campaigns for VALORANT. Major content creators who aren’t necessarily affiliated with Riot Games and its titles have been promoting VALORANT as well. On the other hand, League of Legends doesn’t have a lot of promotion outside of major events where they collaborate with major celebrities that increase the interaction between non-players and the game.

Why is Riot Games Investing More Resources in VALORANT?

League of Legends doesn’t need a lot of promotion. It is a game that is already snowballing from its own success as the most popular MOBA game on the market. Every gamer on the planet has probably heard of or knows about League of Legends as a game. On the other hand, VALORANT is competing with the most successful FPS game on the market and it is still a long way from establishing itself in the esports community.

Many people assume that League of Legends has been struggling and is no longer a relevant title in gaming but the numbers tell us otherwise. People on social media and forums like to say League of Legends is dead but the truth is that it’s one of the fastest-growing titles in gaming. Even without Riot Games actively promoting the game or collaborating with major content creators, there are already so many people advertising the game that they draw in so many people anyways.

Riot Games replacing LoL with VALORANT will not happen anytime soon. There is a possibility that Riot Games will shift its focus more on VALORANT if League of Legends reaches a point where there are less than 1 million active daily users. However, it is an undeniable fact that League of Legends is Riot Games’ primary source of income and is raking in a ridiculous amount of money that it’s impossible that they’re working towards replacing LoL with VALORANT which is probably earning less than half of LoL’s total worth.

As a company, Riot Games’ highest priority is to make sure that all of their titles are earning them money. This means that VALORANT needs to beat out its competitors in the FPS genre by staying in the top 3 FPS titles. Since the genre has so many good titles competing for that spot, Riot Games needs to invest a lot of resources into ensuring that VALORANT can succeed. As of now, VALORANT is in a fragile state that if Riot Games doesn’t actively promote the game, there is a chance that the game’s relevance will collapse.

How This Shift of Focus Will Affect League of Legends

It would be wrong to say that this massive shift in focus and resource allocation doesn’t affect the state of League of Legends. Even though Riot Games isn’t replacing LoL as their mainline title, League of Legends is also receiving fewer fun events and new content. Many fans are complaining about how the modern iteration of the game feels a bit more stale as compared to how it was about 5-6 years ago.

Riot Games has split its company into various departments with major developers and project leads being reassigned to other of its titles. This means that the people who have been coming up with great ideas and creating really good content might not be in League of Legends anymore. There are many who have noticed that Riot Games has broken away from interactive content and have given more focus on visually appealing events and battle passes.

VALORANT Will Soon Overtake League of Legends

Whether or not VALORANT will overtake League of Legends entirely depends on the performance of Counter-Strike 2. The FPS market has heavily favored VALORANT for the past 2 years with the game rapidly gaining tons of active daily users. This is mostly tied to the fact that many players and esports competitors have been expressing their discontent with how VALVE has been hanging CS:GO out to dry.

The announcement of Counter-Strike 2 has revitalized the fans since they are now hoping that much-needed gameplay revamps will be added to the tried-and-tested formula of the game. VALVE is under a lot of pressure to create a game that satisfies the player’s needs. If they make the same mistake as Overwatch 2, there is no doubt that the popularity of VALORANT will skyrocket.

Even if VALORANT overtakes League of Legends, the idea that it will give the idea of Riot Games replacing LoL as its primary title is a bit farfetched. A large percentage of VALORANT players come from League of Legends which means there is no competition between the two titles to begin with. While Riot Games continues to create new titles, they have tied all of those games to be heavily based on the world of Runeterra from League of Legends.

VALORANT is the only game from Riot Games that is not dependent on the Runeterra universe. While Riot Games has included a lot of parts that are heavily inspired by elements from the Runeterra universe, it doesn’t look like the two games are tied together thematically. This means that Riot Games has set a boundary between the two so that they will both stand independently from each other. As such replacing LoL won’t be a possibility when the games are equally being given a balanced focus.