Riot Games, the creator of "League of Legends," markets the game by organizing tournaments annually. At the 2013 game championships, there were thousands of League fans that attended at the Staples Center. There were also millions that gathered online. The winning team of that year, which came from Korea, won the take home prize of $1 million.
Apart from the well-attended tournaments, there is also one university that wanted to add "League of Legends" to the school's athletics program.
Some players on these tournaments are salaried by Riot Games. This allows them to devote around 14 hours a day to practice for the tournaments.
What's interesting and perhaps a little misunderstood about the tournaments is that they are losing money. With ticket costs ranging from $15 to $50 and a huge attendance record of thousands of fans, it may be difficult to explain how all these do not sum up to a huge profit.
Riot Games' cofounder Marc Merrill explained that organizing these tournaments is the company's unique marketing strategy which is aimed at bringing in more players and instilling loyalty in them. The amount of attention that the company gives its players shows just how much these players are placed as the company's top priority.
Another non-profiting move of the company is making the game free to play and download with no particular type of required hardware. Players can't buy extra power or skill for their avatars which means that several years of playing the game for free is absolutely allowable.
However, there are game enhancements and goodies that players can buy such as new costumes for the characters. They cost only between $2 to $10. This may not be a quick way to get rich but if the game has a huge player base and everyone is highly motivated, it can be lucrative by itself.
"If you're really into cars, you don't mind spending $50,000 to soup up your Honda. That's the player we're tapping into," said Merrill.
Riot Games seemed to be doing its strategy well. According to SuperData, the game's fan base spent a staggering $122 million in August by playing the game.
"Whenever I talk to executives at Riot, it's like a mantra: 'Revenue is second, the player experience is first," said Joost van Dreunen, chief executive of SuperData, a market research firm.
Dreunen ended his statement by saying that "League of Legends" is just one of the very few games that would rake in $1 billion in 2014 even if it didn't place revenue as its number one priority.
