League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games saw revenue at its Dublin-based EMEA headquarters spike to €1.85 billion in 2024.
With revenue rising 19 per cent from €1.55 billion in 2023, the games company saw its pretax profits hit €587 million, up 18.3 per cent from €496 million, according to results recently filed by the company.
Riot Games is best known for its 2009 debut title League of Legends. The multiplayer online battle arena game went on to be one of the most-played PC games of all time.
Riot went on to release a number of games in the same segment as League of Legends before entering the first-person shooter genre in 2020 with the release ofValorant, a competitor to Valve’s Counter Strike game series.
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A geographical and business class breakdown of the company’s €1.85 billion revenue was not provided in the filings, with its directors saying it would be “prejudicial to the interests of the company” to do so.
Analysis of the company’s subsidiaries suggest the Dublin headquarters consolidates most of Riot’s business interests outside the United States. Its turnover largely reflects sales of virtual items in its games and royalty revenue generated from its intellectual property.
The games company also runs an esports event associated with its titles, which it streams on various online platforms.
One of its blue-chip competitions, League of Legends European Championship Limited – publicly marketed as LEC as it expanded to cover EMEA – made a loss of €18.15 million in 2024. This came after a larger €28.5 million loss the year prior and brings accumulated losses to €71.5 million.
While the competition, and Riot’s esports competitions generally, are run as marketing exercises, the company is looking to increase revenue.
Its directors said future plans for the business will involve “various methods to increase viewership, attract more sponsors and to improve the health of the overall ecosystem for the benefit of both Riot and the teams that operate within the league”.
Riot Games Limited made a €34 million capital investment into the company behind the competition which it does not expect a return on.
Much of the production for its multiple European esports series are run through a remote broadcast centre in Swords in Dublin.
A subsidiary of Riot Games Limited behind the Swords broadcasting centre recorded turnover of more than €19.5 million in 2024, up from €16.2 million the previous year. It had 11 employees last year.
Total employee costs for the group of Riot Games companies – wages, social insurance and pension contributions – rose slightly from €27.6 million in 2024 to €29.2 million this past year.
The company paid a €228.8 million dividend in 2023 to its US-based parent, but did not pay a dividend in its most recent financial year despite its higher profits.
Riot paid €152.6 million in tax during 2024, including a foreign tax charge of €112.5, up from €75 million, which it said “relates to foreign withholding tax arising from royalty payments received from group companies”.
Riot, which is headquartered in California, was acquired by Chinese multinational technology conglomerate Tencent in 2011. Riot Games has been contacted for comment.
