Arcane is largely considered one of the best TV and film adaptations of a video game, taking inspiration from the world and characters of League of Legends. Riot Games partnered with Netflix and Fortiche Production to create this animated series. The first season was released in 2021, hooking fans instantly and making the gap to season 2’s 2024 launch excruciatingly long. However, Riot Games has reportedly decided to move away from Arcane and recenter back toward its gaming roots, citing production and marketing costs as the culprit, as the production may have gone massively over budget.
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Based on a report from Bloomberg, Riot Games reportedly spent an incredible $250 million dollars on the two seasons of Arcane, and though they did not turn a profit on the series they may be on track to break even. As seen with Legends of Runeterra, Riot Games is not afraid to pull the plug on something that isn’t profitable. As a result, their decision to bring Arcane to an end does not come as a surprise.
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According to various employees of Riot Games that spoke with the outlet, there was worry about investing so much time, money, and effort into something aside from League of Legends. Even with Arcane’s success, Riot Games failed to truly achieve anything substantial with the TV series in terms of converting viewers into players. Unfortunately, this also means other projects regarding TV shows and films around League of Legends are on hiatus as well.
Riot Games’ hope was to turn Arcane fans into players for League of Legends. While League of Legends is free-to-play, it is by far Riot Game’s biggest earner thanks to paid cosmetics. Unfortunately for Riot Games, designers did not have enough time to create Arcane-themed cosmetics for players to purchase in League of Legends ahead of the first season’s premiere. Having these items and skins in the shop could have given players an incentive to stick around, but according to the report, new players quickly dropped off from League of Legends after trying the game due to interest from the TV series.
With the launch of Arcane Act II, designers had much more time to prepare in-game items and skins for those coming from the show into League of Legends. However, other obstacles stood in the way, including the well-known toxicity of the League of Legends community and how difficult learning the game can be.
Despite this grim picture about Arcane‘s production, 2025 and beyond looks promising for League of Legends players. Riot Games has various projects in the works, such as 2XKO and Project K, but still plans to support its biggest cash cow. Other spin-offs are in the works and rumored as well, such as a supposed Destiny-like shooter, giving fans interested in the world’s lore and story plenty to play with.
Maybe the future holds Act III of Arcane, but for now, things look bleak for the animation. It’s unclear if Arcane will remain on Netflix or be removed from the streaming service. Arcane Act I has been released physically, meaning fans can purchase and watch it without fear of it disappearing from Netflix.
