The Future of Consumer Engagement In League of Legends

Consumer engagement has been a constant focal point for those in the gaming industry. However, before the internet, the market was much thinner. Consumer engagement focused on magazines, getting communities talking about releases, and doing press releases to sell the quality of an upcoming release.

In the modern market, this is, of course, an entirely different question. Consumer engagement doesn’t start before the game is released and then end on the release date, which was often the case for many games in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Nowadays, consumer engagement is arguably even more important after the release date, as online gaming plays a pivotal role in keeping people talking about the game and generating engagement on social media, which is now the dominant form of gaming marketing. As League of Legends sits at the top of the eSports pyramid, consumer engagement remains one of its core components. Moving into the 2030s and beyond, Riot Games aims to maintain its title as the most popular eSports game in the world through various strategies.

Learning from other Sectors

Despite being one of the leading lights of the gaming industry, games like League of Legends were able to incorporate many innovations from other gaming sectors and tailor them to their online tournaments, and later, eSports tournaments with enormous prizes at stake.

Casino gaming is a sector that has excelled in leveraging the latest technology, from its early transition online in the 21st century to the adoption of smartphones, and now the emergence of cryptocurrency casinos. To play casino online games covers many different angles, whether it is on a tablet, an iPad, or a smartphone.

However, the central overarching theme here is that casinos have demonstrated to the rest of the gaming industry that smartphones and mobile apps, along with consistent games and transactions, yield a better return on investment in their games.

Ultimately, this is one of the primary factors that contributed to the success of League of Legends. Given that LoL is widely credited as the game that birthed the rise of professional eSports, pioneered the free-to-play model and the idea of microtransactions, as well as many other innovations that it spearheaded.

Those gaming sectors that do not look to the broader industry and instead focus on improving their own designs and marketing strategies have their blinkers on. Not having the flexibility to adapt in the same manner as other gaming sectors can be a recipe for trouble in the long run.

Harnessing Social Media

When League of Legends exploded onto the scene and transformed the world of mobile gaming, microtransactions in the gaming industry, and the emergence of eSports, many people still disputed the power of social media.

You’d have to search far and wide in 2025 to find anyone who disputes the power of social media, especially from a marketing perspective whether it is in casino gaming, like advertising a big win as seen below, or figurehead names in gaming like Riot or Rockstar ploughing millions of dollars into the development and management of their social media channels.

A $250 million venture into TV shows turned out to be an expensive move for Riot. However, it’s a multifaceted marketing approach that spans digital media and engages as many potential customers as possible. This approach has worked incredibly well for them over the last decade and a half.

While not all ideas will be successful, as long as they continue to commit to a multi-pronged approach to marketing on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, they can build on their already remarkable success, and consumer engagement will not be a problem for them moving forward.

Remaining relevant in a Global Gaming World

Some companies have such resounding success in their field that they allow themselves plenty of breathing room for future endeavours. This doesn’t mean they can constantly pour money down the drain, but they are not met with the same sort of financial constraints that impact smaller game design companies.

Purely because of the size of League of Legends, their eSports, and the level of engagement they generate on social media, they’ve positioned themselves in a dominant position in the world of gaming.

That’s not to say they should take their foot off the gas, quite the opposite, the rise of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), which is heavily influenced and inspired by League of Legends, shows that there’s still a colossal market for the game and the genre, but Riot will feel uneasy that a game which bares such a strong resemblance to LoL is becoming such an enormous standalone market – especially in other parts of the world.

MLBB is also making an effort to develop female eSports leagues, which is another critical area that has been left unexplored by some of the more traditional eSports models.

The Future of League of Legends

Harnessing the power of social media, adapting to trends, and understanding consumer demand are three key elements in generating consumer engagement across any industry, including gaming. So long as Riot keeps its eye on the ball and continues to do what it’s done over the last decade, it should have no issues keeping up with changes in the industry.