Ten years ago, a big esports final was a tournament with a trophy at the end. Today it’s closer to a blockbuster premiere: a live concert, new music videos, cinematic trailers and a crowd that knows the characters as well as the players. Nowhere is that shift clearer than in the world of League of Legends, where a competitive game has grown into an animated series, a virtual pop group and now a trading card game. If you follow the competitive side, https://esportnow.com tracks tournament results and team news week by week. This piece looks at the other half of the story: how studios learned to build entire universes around their games.
The opening ceremony that changed the rules
The moment many fans point to came at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship in South Korea. Before the final, Riot Games debuted K/DA, a virtual K-pop group made up of four of the game’s champions, performing “POP/STARS” alongside real singers, with the animated members brought to the stage through augmented reality.
It was a spectacle, but it was also a strategy. The song and its music video went far beyond the usual gaming audience, and fans who had never played a ranked match suddenly knew who Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai’Sa were. Riot had shown that champions could live outside the game, as characters with personalities, fans and stories of their own.
Since then, Worlds opening ceremonies have become annual events in their own right, with new anthems, virtual bands and live performances designed to be clipped, shared and streamed far beyond the arena.
Arcane: the show that proved the model
If K/DA was the experiment, Arcane was the proof. Produced by Riot with the French animation studio Fortiche and released on Netflix in November 2021, the series told the story of sisters Vi and Jinx in the twin cities of Piltover and Zaun. It didn’t feel like a marketing tie-in, and that was the point.
The show’s painterly animation and mature storytelling won over critics and audiences who had no interest in the game. Arcane became the first streaming series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 2022, and its second season, released in November 2024, won the same award again in 2025.
Arcane also changed how the industry talks about game adaptations. For years, films and shows based on video games were treated as a risky genre. Arcane showed that a game universe, handled with care, could produce prestige television.
Not every viewer becomes a player
There’s a twist, though. Industry observers have noted that Arcane’s success didn’t translate into a big wave of new League of Legends players. Many viewers loved the characters but had little interest in learning a complex, competitive game.
That gap has pushed Riot to look for easier entry points into its universe. The clearest example is Riftbound, a League of Legends trading card game that launched in English-speaking markets in October 2025. It offers fans a way to engage with champions and regions through deck-building, without needing hundreds of hours of practice in the main game.
The Riot transmedia map
| Format | Example | What it adds to the universe |
|---|---|---|
| Competitive game | League of Legends | The core experience and the esports scene |
| Animated series | Arcane | Deep character stories for a mainstream audience |
| Virtual music acts | K/DA and other bands | Pop-culture reach through music videos and live shows |
| Card game | Riftbound | A low-barrier way into the world of Runeterra |
| Spin-off games | Ruined King, Song of Nunu, Wild Rift | Single-player stories and mobile play |
| Live events | Worlds opening ceremonies | Spectacle that ties all of the above together |
Why esports is the glue
What makes this strategy different from a typical film franchise is the role of competition. Esports gives the universe a live, ongoing storyline that never stops: rivalries, dynasties, underdogs and comebacks.
Fans don’t just watch characters on screen. They watch real players use those characters in high-stakes matches. When a pro picks a champion who has just starred in a hit series or music video, the moment carries extra weight. The fictional story and the real competition feed into each other.
The numbers back that up. The 2024 World Championship set a new record for esports viewership, with peak live viewers reaching around 6.94 million, according to Esports Charts, a figure that doesn’t include Chinese platforms. Events of that scale are as much entertainment launches as sporting contests.
Worlds 2026: the next stage
This year’s World Championship brings the tournament back to North America for the first time since 2022. It runs from October 15 to November 14, with the final at the Barclays Center in New York. T1, winners of the last three titles, arrive chasing an unprecedented fourth in a row.
Expect the usual mix of new music, cinematic content and on-stage spectacle. For many fans, the opening ceremony is now as anticipated as the matches themselves.
What other studios have learned
Riot isn’t alone. Studios across the industry now plan their games as platforms for stories rather than standalone products:
- Animated shorts and series expand the lore of competitive titles between seasons.
- Music collaborations bring in audiences who would never download a game.
- Physical products such as card games, collectibles and comics give fans something to hold.
- Live finals double as showcases for new content, trailers and announcements.
The lesson is simple: a strong universe keeps people engaged even when they’re not playing.
A new kind of franchise
The line between gaming, esports and mainstream entertainment has never been thinner. A single universe can now include a competitive scene watched by millions, an award-winning series, chart-friendly music and a card game on the kitchen table. For fans, that means more ways to enjoy the characters they love. For studios, it means the esports stage is no longer the end of the story. It’s where the next chapter gets announced.
