A Riot Games developer explained the behind-the-scenes reason why Arena mode in League of Legends didn’t become permanent, and the complicated equation of player retention.
Arena mode is Riot’s version of a brawling game inside League of Legends, with players facing off in 2v2 battles with powerups and items akin to Teamfight Tactics but still focusing on MOBA mechanics.
The developer said early on that this iteration of Arena, its third so far, could become a permanent fixture in LoL, but revealed it would be shelved again in an August 9 update. In the September 23 Dev Update, Eduardo Cortejoso explained that after two months in the client, players stopped loading into Arena.
“Unfortunately, even our mid-run content update didn’t quite inspire a lot of players to come back. But don’t worry, Arena won’t be gone forever. We’re planning on bringing it back in the first half of next year with some much-needed quality of life improvements and even some more wacky augments,” Cortejoso said.
.@RiotPabro and @RiotMeddler are joined by @RiotPhroxzon and @ed_corte in today's Dev Update. In it they cover:👾Modes🥇Matchmaking🍄Teemo🏆Worlds 2024🖥️LoL Player Days🤔Seasons in 2025 pic.twitter.com/0BDnY4ouwe
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) September 23, 2024
Riot’s head of League studio, Andrei van Roon, further explained the issue with player retention on Reddit. He said LoL Arena has a “range of different overlapping audiences,” and they haven’t found which niche is the biggest or the most willing to stick around for an extended period in the mode.
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“Some people want a pretty straightforward mode for high-skill expression 2v2 in. Some want to learn new champions. Some want to try their luck in a more chaotic environment. Some want to demonstrate how adaptable they can be,” Roon said.
Riot has been experimenting with new modes building off of the League of Legends client for a few years after seeing early success with TFT. In 2024, the developer released Swarm Mode, a new PvE game inspired by Vampire Survivors that has been a relative hit with some players.
However, even Swarm is also leaving the client as it was never intended to be a permanent mode.
Whether Arena will stick around after its fourth launch, and find an audience within the LoL player base remains to be seen. Riot seems determined to iterate on the mode and hasn’t given up trying to make it work.