How Many Champions Are in League of Legends in 2026

172 champions. That is how many champions in LoL right now, April 2026. Zaahen dropped in November 2025 and nothing new since. Riot said one more is coming this year, a guy called Locke, probably mid-summer. Why so slow? Because most of the champ design team got yanked off to build whatever “League Next” turns out to be. We will find out after MSI.

So yeah. If you Googled “how many champions in LoL” hoping the number went up, it didn’t. Still 172. Will be 173 once Locke drops, then that is it for 2026.

Quick Reference: LoL Champion Count at a Glance

Detail	Info
Total champions (April 2026)	172
Newest champion	Zaahen (November 19, 2025)
Next confirmed champion	Locke (mid-2026, AP fighter)
Champions at launch (2009)	40
Champions needed for ranked	20 minimum
Current season	Season 16
Developer	Riot Games

How Many Champions in LoL Per Role?

172 champs spread across five positions on Summoner’s Rift. Some stick to one lane, others show up everywhere (looking at you, Pantheon). The meta moves every patch, so these counts shift around, but for Season 16 it looks roughly like this:

Role	Approximate Count	Popular Picks (Patch 26.7)
Top Lane	40+	Darius, Jax, Camille, Garen
Jungle	35+	Lee Sin, Viego, Warwick, Amumu
Mid Lane	45+	Ahri, Yasuo, Syndra, Lux
Bot / ADC	25+	Ezreal, Jinx, Caitlyn, Kai’Sa
Support	35+	Thresh, Lulu, Nautilus, Karma

Overlap is real. Pantheon goes top, mid, jungle, or support. Brand works mid and support. Viego jungles but pops up mid sometimes. Season 16 made it worse with Role Quests and the seventh item slot for ADCs, so flex picks are everywhere right now.

All Six Champion Classes in LoL Explained

Riot splits all 172 champs into six gameplay classes. This is separate from what lane they play. A Fighter can go top or jungle. A Mage can go mid or support. The class just tells you what the champion does in a fight.

• Assassins (Zed, Talon, Katarina) — you jump in, one-shot a carry, and either get out or die trying. No in-between.
• Fighters (Darius, Camille, Jax) — two flavours here. Juggernauts walk at you slowly and stat-check you to death. Divers have gap closers and go straight for the backline.
• Mages (Syndra, Lux, Viktor) — spell damage from range. Burst mages delete you in one combo, control mages make half the map unplayable.
• Marksmen (Ezreal, Jinx, Caitlyn) — right-click machines. Weak early, scary late. Your team babysits you for 20 minutes and then you carry the game.
• Supports (Thresh, Lulu, Soraka) — enchanters keep your ADC alive, wardens bodyguard the team, catchers fish for picks. Thresh hook from fog of war? GG.
• Tanks (Ornn, Malphite, Leona) — soak damage, press R, win the team fight. Not flashy but it works every time below Diamond.

Plenty of champs blur the lines. Sett plays Fighter and Tank. Pyke is somehow an Assassin Support (still feels illegal). Singed, Teemo, Heimerdinger? They are “Specialists” which is Riot’s way of saying “we gave up trying to classify these guys.”

Most Played LoL Champions in Season 16

Out of 172 champions, most of the player base gravitates toward the same 20 or so picks. These five have been near the top of the pick rate charts for years, and Season 16 hasn’t changed that.

Champion	Role	Why They Stay Popular
Ezreal	ADC	Safe poke, self-peel with E, never truly falls out of meta. ADC mains default to him when nothing else feels right.
Lee Sin	Jungle	Jungle king since 2011. 13 years and counting. Insec kicks still win games in 2026, and every jungler has at least tried to main him.
Yasuo	Mid	Love him or hate him, the hasagi swordsman draws players who want outplay potential. His 0/10 powerspike is a meme for a reason.
Lux	Mid / Support	Easy to pick up, solid at every rank, and she has more skins than most champions have abilities. Riot clearly knows she sells.
Thresh	Support	The playmaking support king. Landing a Thresh hook into a lantern save is one of the most satisfying combos in the game.

One thing I have noticed in my Plat games this season: Mel is everywhere. Her ban rate is still high even after the Patch 26.3 nerfs. She might crack this list permanently if Riot doesn’t tone her down again.

LoL Champions by Faction

Another way to answer how many champions in LoL is to break them down by region. This is something nobody talks about, but it matters for predicting future releases. Riot ties new champions to the season theme. Season 16 is Demacia, so Locke is from Demacia. Makes sense.

Faction	Approx. Champions	Notable Names
Demacia	14	Garen, Lux, Jarvan IV, Vayne, Fiora
Noxus	14	Darius, Draven, Katarina, Swain, Mel
Ionia	19	Yasuo, Ahri, Zed, Akali, Shen
Freljord	13	Ashe, Braum, Ornn, Sejuani
Piltover & Zaun	18	Jinx, Vi, Ezreal, Caitlyn, Ekko
Shadow Isles	10	Thresh, Viego, Hecarim, Karthus
Shurima	10	Azir, Xerath, Sivir, K’Sante
Targon	9	Leona, Diana, Pantheon, Aphelios
Bilgewater	7	Gangplank, Miss Fortune, Pyke
Void / Bandle City / Other	20+	Cho’Gath, Vel’Koz, Teemo, Lulu

Ionia wins the faction race with 19 champs. Not surprising. Anime-style fighters, ninja assassins, magic foxes. That region prints popular champions. Piltover/Zaun is close behind thanks to the whole Arcane hype bringing in Jinx, Vi, Ekko, and Caitlyn fans.

How the Roster Grew: Release History by Year

Back in 2009, Riot was shipping champions like they had a quota. 42 champs in one year. Two per patch sometimes. Kits were simple, lore was an afterthought, and nobody cared about balance because the game was brand new and everyone was terrible.

The pace slowed way down since then:

Year	Champions Released	Notable Additions
2009	42	Launch roster + Annie, Ashe, Ryze, Teemo
2010	24	Miss Fortune, Caitlyn, Ezreal
2011	24	Vayne, Riven, Lee Sin, Ahri
2012	19	Jayce (100th champ), Thresh, Zed
2013	8	Yasuo, Jinx, Lucian
2014	6	Azir, Gnar, Braum
2015	5	Ekko, Kindred, Illaoi
2016	6	Jhin, Camille, Kled
2017	5	Xayah & Rakan, Kayn, Ornn
2018	4	Kai’Sa, Pyke, Neeko
2019	4	Sylas, Senna, Aphelios
2020	6	Samira, Viego, Sett, Lillia
2021	5	Gwen, Akshan, Vex
2022	4	K’Sante, Bel’Veth, Nilah
2023	4	Hwei, Naafiri, Milio
2024	3	Smolder, Aurora, Ambessa
2025	3	Mel, Yunara, Zaahen
2026	1 (confirmed)	Locke (mid-year)

Insane difference when you compare eras. Riot went from dumping champs as fast as possible to spending months on each one. A single 2025 release has more voice lines than like 10 champions from 2009 put together. Launch skins, cinematic trailers, abilities complex enough to need a PhD. The game Riot ships now barely resembles what it was back then.

This video from Vars goes deep on how League’s champion roster evolved from 2009 to now:

Why Only One Champion in 2026?

Meddler (Andrei van Roon, Head of League Studio) dropped a Reddit comment in early March 2026 explaining why. Short version: the champ design team got pulled off to work on some big gameplay overhaul. Nobody outside Riot knows exactly what it is, but the community calls it “League Next.” We should get details after MSI in July.

Locke is the only new face for 2026. Rumored to be an AP fighter out of Demacia. Game director PuPuLasers kind of confirmed the name in an April Fool’s post, and there is leaked footage from the “For the Fallen” motion comic showing a hooded dude with red glasses and a quiver. Probably tied to the summer event.

That means the roster will hit 173 when Locke ships and stay there for the rest of the year.

LoL Champion Roster Milestones

How many champions in LoL at each milestone? Some numbers from the timeline that are kind of wild:

Milestone	Champion	Date
First champion designed	Singed (internal ID #1)	Pre-alpha
Alpha roster	17 champions (Annie, Ashe, etc.)	February 2009
Launch roster	40 champions	October 2009
50th champion	Draven	June 2012
100th champion	Jayce	July 2012
150th champion	Samira	September 2020
Most recent (172nd)	Zaahen	November 2025
Next (173rd)	Locke	Mid-2026 (estimated)

Took Riot about 3 years to go from 40 to 100. But 150 to 172? Six years. Release pace dropped off hard, but the effort per champ went way up. Hwei has 10 unique spells. Annie launched with one of the simplest kits ever made. Not even the same sport anymore.

How to Unlock Champions in LoL

New players look at 172 champions and panic. You do not need all of them. Seriously. I play ranked with 3 champs in my pool and a couple backups. That is more than enough.

Knowing how many champions in LoL exist is one thing. Actually getting them is another grind. Here is how it works in Season 16:

Blue Essence (BE)

Free currency. Play games, earn XP, level up, pop champion capsules, disenchant the shards. First Win of the Day throws in 50 extra BE. Annie and Garen run you 450 BE. Newest champs cost 3,150 BE. It is a grind but at least it is free.

Riot Points (RP)

Paid currency. Skip the line. New champs run 975 RP (about $7-8 depending on which RP bundle you grab). Old ones drop to 260 RP over time. Quick but expensive if you go crazy.

Champion Shards

This is the real move. Shards drop from champion capsules, Hextech Chests, honor stuff, and event passes. Got a shard for a champ you actually want? You can upgrade it for 60% off the normal BE price. On a 6,300 BE champ that saves you almost 4,000 BE. Huge.

If you are starting a fresh account and want to skip the grind, you can check out our LoL smurf accounts that come loaded with Blue Essence and champions already unlocked. Saves you weeks of farming.

The Math: How Long to Unlock All 172 Champions

OK so I actually sat down and calculated this. To buy every single champion at full BE price you need around 560,000 BE. If you earn 1,000 to 1,500 BE per day with capsules and First Win bonus, that is 370 to 560 days. Over a year of daily play just to own the full roster. Wild.

Here is the good news though: you do not need all 172. Ranked requires 20. The new player rewards and early capsules hand you about 15 for free. So really you just need to buy 5 cheap champs at 450 BE each. That takes like a week of casual games.

Pro tip: disenchant shards you do not want, grab champ shards from event passes when they show up, and buy the 450 and 1,350 BE champs first. Leave the 6,300 BE ones until you actually want to play them.

Do You Need to Learn All 172 LoL Champions?

No. Trying to learn all of them is a trap and I fell into it for two seasons. How many champions in LoL do you actually face in ranked? Maybe 40 regularly. Another 30 show up once in a while. The rest? You will see them so rarely it does not matter. Aphelios still confuses me and I have been playing since Season 5.

What actually matters for climbing ranked: master 2-3 champs for your main role. Grab 1-2 backups for off-role. Learn what every champ’s ult does (comes naturally after a few hundred games, or just skim the LoL Wiki). And care more about matchup knowledge than counter-picking with a champ you barely play.

The players who climb fastest are one-tricks and small-pool players who know every matchup cold. I climbed from Gold to Diamond by spamming three champions and dodging bad matchups. That is way more effective than trying to “counter-pick” with a champion you have 10 games on.

LoL Champion Price Tiers: BE and RP Costs

So you know how many champions in LoL there are. Now the question: how much does it cost to own them all? Champion prices are not the same across the board. Old champs get cheaper over time, new ones start expensive. Here is the breakdown for Season 16:

BE Price	RP Price	Count	Examples
450 BE	260 RP	~20	Annie, Ashe, Garen, Master Yi, Soraka
1,350 BE	585 RP	~25	Jax, Morgana, Twisted Fate, Nasus
3,150 BE	790 RP	~30	Ezreal, Lee Sin, Vayne, Ahri, Thresh
4,800 BE	880 RP	~40	Yasuo, Zed, Jinx, Riven, Camille
6,300 BE	975 RP	~55	Zaahen, Mel, Hwei, K’Sante, Aphelios

New releases always start at 6,300 BE / 975 RP. A year later they usually drop a tier. The 450 BE champs? Mostly 2009-2010 OGs. And some of them are lowkey broken at every elo. Garen, Annie, Ashe, all dirt cheap, all can carry games. Best value in the entire store.

Which LoL Champions Have the Most Skins?

Skin count is basically Riot telling you which champs make them the most money. High play rate = lots of skins. Low play rate = you might wait 3 years for a single skin (RIP Ornn mains).

Champion	Skin Count	Fun Fact
Lux	20+	Gets a new skin almost every event. The community memes about it constantly.
Ezreal	18+	Has skins in almost every thematic line. Riot just keeps making them.
Miss Fortune	18+	Her Gun Goddess skin was one of the first Ultimate skins.
Ahri	17+	Got a full visual update in 2023. Still one of the most popular mid laners.
Kai’Sa	15+	Released in 2018, already caught up to champions that have been around for 15 years.

Meanwhile some champs go years without a new skin. Ornn waited over 1,000 days for his second one. Skarner had the same problem before his rework. If your main is unpopular, just accept it. Riot is not making skins for champs nobody plays.

LoL vs Other MOBAs: Champion Count Comparison

People always ask how many champions in LoL vs Dota or Smite. League wins by a mile. Not even close.

Game	Playable Characters	Developer
League of Legends	172	Riot Games
Dota 2	128	Valve
Smite	130	Hi-Rez Studios
Heroes of the Storm	90	Blizzard (development ended)
Wild Rift (mobile LoL)	100+	Riot Games

LoL is pulling further ahead every year. Dota barely adds heroes, Valve just does not care as much about roster growth. 172 vs 128 is a huge gap in draft variety. In pro play especially, teams can run completely different comps across a five-game series and still have picks left over.

The Shyvana Rework: Not a New Champion, But Close

OK so technically only one brand-new champion for 2026. But the Shyvana VGU landed in Patch 26.6, March 18, and let me tell you, it basically is a new champion. Completely rebuilt kit, new model, new voice, new everything. She hit 57% win rate day one because nobody knew how to play against her. Classic VGU launch chaos.

Riot keeps doing more VGUs as new champion releases slow down. Makes sense. Some old champs feel like they are from a completely different game. Shyvana was one of those. Skarner got the same treatment in 2024. Reworks do not change how many champions in LoL are on the roster (you are replacing, not adding), but gameplay-wise it feels like a fresh release.

Champions That Got Full VGU Reworks

A VGU means Riot nukes a champion and rebuilds them from zero. New model, new kit, new voice, new lore. The old version is gone forever. Some of the biggest ones:

Champion	VGU Year	What Changed
Sion	2014	Went from a generic zombie to an undead war machine with one of the best ultimates in the game.
Warwick	2017	Kept the “hunt low HP enemies” identity but got a completely new kit. One of Riot’s cleanest reworks.
Fiddlesticks	2020	Turned from a janky scarecrow into a genuine horror champion. His ultimate out of fog of war still terrifies people.
Volibear	2020	Changed from a flip-bear to a storm god. Much cooler thematic, way better gameplay.
Skarner	2024	Complete identity shift. New crystal scorpion fantasy, totally different abilities.
Shyvana	2026	Full rebuild in Patch 26.6. Hit 57% win rate on launch. Feels like a brand new champion.

Riot picks who gets a VGU through community votes. No word yet on who is next, but Nocturne, Corki, and Shaco have been on the community wishlist forever.

How Many LoL Champions Are Free Each Week?

Riot swaps out 16 free champions every Tuesday. So while how many champions in LoL total is 172, you can try 16 of them for free any given week without spending a single BE. Mix of roles, price tiers, difficulty. If you are below level 11 you get a simpler beginner rotation with Garen, Ashe, Annie type picks. After 11 you see the full weekly pool.

Honestly one of the best ways to test champs before spending BE. I try every champ I am curious about during free week first. Saves you from dropping 6,300 BE on someone you play twice and never touch again. More details in our free champion rotation guide.

Easiest and Hardest LoL Champions to Play

172 champs and the difficulty range is insane. So how many champions in LoL are actually playable for a beginner? Maybe 20-30 at best. Some you pick up in one game. Others? Hundreds of games and you are still running it down.

5 Easiest Champions for Beginners

Champion	Role	Why They’re Easy
Garen	Top	No mana, passive healing, spin to win. You literally cannot mess up his combo.
Annie	Mid	Point-and-click Q, stun passive that teaches ability counting, and Tibbers does the rest.
Ashe	ADC	Long range, built-in slow, global ult that is easy to land. Teaches kiting basics.
Amumu	Jungle	Simple clear, two Q charges for engage, and an R that wins team fights by itself.
Soraka	Support	Stand behind your ADC, press W to heal, press R to heal everyone. That is the whole job.

5 Hardest Champions to Master

Champion	Role	Why They’re Hard
Aphelios	ADC	5 weapons, no normal abilities, requires tracking ammo and understanding 10 different combos. I still Google his kit.
Azir	Mid	Soldier micro-management, Shurima Shuffle requires frame-perfect inputs, and he is awful if you are not Diamond+.
Lee Sin	Jungle	Easy to play, near impossible to master. The gap between a Gold Lee Sin and a Challenger one is massive.
Hwei	Mid	10 unique abilities. Three spell subjects with three options each. Your brain runs out of hotkeys.
Draven	ADC	Catching axes while fighting, positioning, and kiting is a juggling act. Drop one axe and your damage falls off a cliff.

If you are just starting out, stick to the easy champions. I am serious. There is no shame in playing Garen to Diamond. In fact, a lot of one-tricks in high elo play “simple” champions because the game knowledge matters way more than mechanical skill below Master tier. We have a full breakdown in our hardest champions to master guide.

The Original 17: Where League Started

Before the beta even existed, Riot threw 17 champions into an alpha build on February 21, 2009. Back then nobody was asking how many champions in LoL because the answer was embarrassingly small. These were the day-one crew:

Alistar, Annie, Ashe, Fiddlesticks, Jax, Kayle, Master Yi, Morgana, Nunu, Ryze, Sion, Sivir, Soraka, Teemo, Tristana, Twisted Fate, and Warwick.

Basic kits. Nothing fancy. Most are still in the game, but Sion and Fiddlesticks got reworked so hard that the originals are basically gone. Annie and Ashe though? Still popular 17 years later. Pretty good for champions designed in what was probably a weekend.

Fun fact: Singed holds internal champion ID #1, which makes him the first champion Riot ever coded. He wasn’t part of the alpha 17, though. He joined during closed beta.

What Comes After 172?

If Riot keeps this 1-3 champs per year pace, we are looking at 200 somewhere around 2033. Maybe later if they keep pulling devs onto League Next. Reddit is split on whether that is good or bad. Half the community thinks 172 is already too many to balance. The other half says the variety is exactly why League is still alive after 17 years. Both sides have a point honestly.

Riot’s strategy is clear though: fewer new champs, more reworks, make every release count. League Next could change everything, but right now nobody outside Riot knows what it actually is. We will find out after MSI.

Bottom line: how many champions in LoL? 172 right now. 173 once Locke drops mid-2026. And then we see what happens next.

FAQ

How many champions are in League of Legends right now?

172 as of April 2026. Zaahen was the last release back in November 2025. Next up is Locke, expected sometime mid-2026.

Who is the newest champion in LoL?

Zaahen. He dropped November 19, 2025. Top lane bruiser with a Darkin theme and a revival passive. Locke is next, confirmed for mid-2026.

How many champions do you need to play ranked in LoL?

20 minimum. That covers 10 bans plus 9 other player picks, leaving you at least one champion to actually play. In practice you want way more than 20 so you have real options in draft.

How many champions did League of Legends launch with?

40 at the official October 2009 launch. The original alpha test in February 2009 had 17, then Riot kept adding through beta until launch day.

How many new LoL champions are coming in 2026?

Just one. Locke, rumored AP fighter from Demacia. Riot pulled most of the champ design team onto a big gameplay update (probably League Next) so releases slowed to a crawl this year.

What are the six champion classes in League of Legends?

Assassin, Fighter, Mage, Marksman, Support, and Tank. Most champs overlap between two classes. Sett is a Fighter/Tank, Pyke is an Assassin/Support, and so on.

Getting back into League? Our Blue Essence farming guide covers the fastest ways to build your collection. Want the full timeline of every champ ever released? That is in our release date breakdown.

And if ranked is your thing, the ranked system explainer has everything on LP, MMR resets, and how climbing works in Season 16.

Last updated: April 2026