There's one crucial factor fuelling such strong growth for League of Legends - its launch into Asia, overseen by a large and established gaming operator within the region. In February of this year, Riot Games was acquired by major Chinese company Tencent, for $400m. At the end of May, Tencent launched League of Legends into China. While this likely isn't the singular cause of growth for the title, it'll be a key factor. The broaching of Asia isn't mentioned in Riot's latest round of figures, but the potential for uptake in the territory is tangible: Asia remains the biggest territory for World of Warcraft and its 10m+ subscriber base. While League of Legends isn't an MMORPG per se, there's a depth of experience and high-fantasy style that it shares with Warcraft, that would offer some explanation for swift penetration into China, in tandem with it arriving there under the guidance of one of the biggest online gaming entities in the region. League of Legends is also operated in South East Asia, via eSports specialist portal Garena.