How many people play League of Legends each month?

How to get close to this number

Place it below the mobile giants and above a console hit. A free-to-play title on desktop reaches fewer people than a mobile game but far more than a paid release, because the barrier is a download rather than a purchase. Hundreds of millions is the right band, and a long-running leader sits at the top of it.

The longevity is the remarkable part: still at that scale fifteen years after launch. Games of this kind do not have a sales curve that decays; they have a player base that is maintained, through continuous updates and competitive seasons. The relevant statistic is retention, not sales, and this is the reference case for it.

The business model in the explanation is the structural point. Free to play, monetised entirely through cosmetic items that confer no advantage, looked absurd when it launched and now defines the industry. Selling appearance rather than power is what allows a competitive game to charge money without corrupting its own balance, and this title proved it at scale.