The release of Riot Games’ groundbreaking animated series, Arcane, offered an opportunity to redefine entertainment with a 360 degree focus on audience engagement, launched through the lens of gaming.

Under the banner of RiotX Arcane, Riot connected gaming with immersive experiential storytelling over the show’s three week debut. With a first-of-its kind, globally co-streamed watch party, traveling pop-up expos that brought the show’s technology to life, and an immersive, finale experience that brought players into an exact replica of the seedy undercity of Zaun, this experience was meticulously crafted to inspire audiences, paying off a decade of shared fandom.

League of Legends is one of the biggest games in the world. But in entering a new market of entertainment, Riot Games faced challenges in bringing its IP to entertainment, including overcoming a niche audience of animation fans, unproven product and immense competition for viewers’ attention.

To overcome these challenges and introduce Season 1 of Arcane with a bang, Riot challenged the norms of traditional entertainment premieres that focus primarily on driving viewership at launch, and instead went all-in to craft a multi-week, global campaign that would inspire ongoing tune-in and social hype from start to finish.

Enter RiotX Arcane: a connected brand experience spanning digital broadcast, games, partnerships, surprise announcements and immersive in-person events with creative content that evolved and escalated along with narrative acts of the show for a digital-first audience; RiotX Arcane offered players a truly one-of-a-kind experience.

The launch of Arcane kicked-off a new era of entertainment for Riot Games, marking its first foray into entertainment. Riot Games mobilized all teams across its worldwide studios to bring the show to market in a way that transformed the standard TV series launch into a globally connected celebration; paying off a decade of fandom with an evolving experience that seamlessly combined entertainment and gaming across the show’s three-week debut.

With a digital-first, global approach, Riot would democratize traditional entertainment premieres, harnessing the power of new community oriented platforms like Twitch. Throughout the season, Riot empowered its evangelists through interactive celebrations in and out of game. It concluding at the finale with an immersive theater experience that opened into a surprise Arcane-themed gamer's paradise, featuring a screening room, gaming cafe, music performances from artists on the Arcane soundtrack and live interviews with talent from the show.

Riot Games mobilized all teams across its worldwide studios to bring Arcane to market in a way that transformed a standard TV series launch into a globally connected celebration for its players.

Riot hyper-served its target audience of League of Legends fans, betting that its evangelists would create a massive conversation volume that would help reach new fans and broader entertainment audiences.

To bring the celebration to the broader gaming industry, Riot brought characters featured in Arcane to other popular games like Fortnite, for the first time ever. To help its players celebrate out of game, Riot partnered with Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, its first global beauty partner, to curate beauty looks in its games and entertainment projects. Riot also partnered with Spinmaster to sell Arcane themed toys in Target stores and hosted a Disneyland-like live experience, immersing fans into the world of Arcane via a partnership with Secret Cinema.

The audience engagement spanned over the course of three weeks, served three ways.

Act #1: World Premiere

For Arcane’s premiere, a first-of-its kind, globally co-streamed watch party with celebrity talent alongside notable Twitch influencers and fans provided everyone a way to experience the show for free and together with their communities.

Act #2: Progress Days

The following week, Riot inspired ongoing conversation and content from fans and creators via a multi-city, traveling pop up ‘expos’ with interactive AR displays. Players were able to interact with the displays via augmented reality, unlocking exclusive content, filters and interactions that would change with the story of the show.

Act #3: Undercity Nights

To celebrate the show finale, Riot transformed a giant warehouse in Los Angeles into an experiential gamer’s paradise, featuring an immersive theater experience, charity gaming tournament, music performances and more all live streamed on Twitch for fans around the world.

Fan response to these shared experiences shattered records across viewership and online engagement. In addition to hitting the #1 spot on Netflix’s Top 10 charts in over 50 countries, over 10 million total hours of Arcane content was viewed on Twitch across Premiere and Undercity Nights events. Related social content drove over 130 million views on owned channels and user generated content drove a staggering 2 billion+ views on TikTok alone.

This resulted in 3+ billion hours of games played in November 202; the equivalent of every American playing Riot's games for 9 hours. This was an increase in play time by over three times of the average American gamer, further equating to 22.7 minutes played by everyone on Earth.