LoL Champions by Release Date: Complete Timeline (2009-2026)

So League went from 17 characters at launch (February 2009) to 172 champions as of right now, March 2026. Below is the whole list of LoL champions by release date, broken out year by year. If you’re just looking for one specific champ, hit ctrl+F and type the name.

TL;DR: Zaahen dropped in November 2025 as champion #172. Locke from Demacia is the only new champ coming in 2026. Riot is spending most of their time on League Next instead of new releases.

All LoL Champions by Release Date: Year-by-Year Table

Here’s every year at a glance. If you just need the numbers, this table has you covered. I go deeper on each era further down.

Year	Champions Released	Total After Year	Notable Additions
2009	40	40	Annie, Ashe, Ryze, Teemo, Twisted Fate
2010	24	64	Miss Fortune, Pantheon, Poppy, Irelia
2011	24	88	Caitlyn, Vayne, Ahri, Riven
2012	19	107	Draven (#50), Thresh, Kha’Zix
2013	8	115	Jinx, Yasuo, Lucian
2014	6	121	Braum, Gnar, Azir
2015	5	126	Ekko, Kindred, Bard
2016	6	132	Jhin, Camille, Kled
2017	5	137	Xayah, Rakan, Kayn, Zoe (#100)
2018	3	140	Kai’Sa, Pyke, Neeko
2019	5	145	Sylas (#150), Qiyana, Senna
2020	6	151	Sett, Lillia, Yone, Samira, Seraphine
2021	4	155	Viego, Gwen, Akshan, Vex
2022	5	160	Renata Glasc, Bel’Veth, Nilah, K’Sante
2023	4	164	Milio, Naafiri, Briar, Hwei
2024	3	167	Smolder, Aurora, Ambessa
2025	3	172*	Mel, Yunara, Zaahen
2026	1 (confirmed)	173*	Locke (expected mid-year)

*The exact count per year varies across sources because some include mid-patch releases or count reworks differently. Numbers above follow LoL Wiki data, which lists 172 unique champions as of November 2025.

If you just want a count with role breakdown, that’s on our how many champions in LoL page.

2009: The Original 17 and the Road to 40 Champions

The game’s alpha test on February 21, 2009 had 17 champions in it: Alistar, Annie, Ashe, Fiddlesticks, Jax, Kayle, Master Yi, Morgana, Nunu, Ryze, Sion, Sivir, Soraka, Teemo, Tristana, Twisted Fate, and Warwick. Pretty basic kits across the board. Annie threw fireballs, Ashe shot arrows, and Teemo made everyone rage with mushrooms (still does, honestly).

More champs kept getting added through beta, and by the time the game officially launched on October 27, 2009 there were already 40 playable characters. Zilean, Evelynn, Dr. Mundo, Nidalee, stuff like that. Back then people didn’t really have a concept of “meta” yet, most players just picked whoever looked fun and went wherever on the map.

2010-2011: 24 New LoL Champions Released Per Year

These two years were pure chaos. Riot shipped 24 new champions each year, sometimes dropping two in a single patch. Balance was an afterthought. Xin Zhao had a 67% win rate on release. Players called him “Win Zhao” for a reason.

2010 gave us Poppy, Pantheon, Miss Fortune, Irelia, and a ton of others. Some of those champs are still getting played today. 2011 brought Caitlyn, Vayne, Riven, and Ahri. If you played back then, you remember. If you didn’t, you’ve still seen these names in every patch tier list since.

Riot basically just shipped stuff and figured out balance later. It worked for a while. The player base blew up, competitive started getting serious, and by late 2011 there were over 80 champions to pick from. But a lot of the older kits felt rough compared to newer ones. Something had to give.

2012-2014: When Champion Design Got Serious

2012 through 2014 gave us some of the best champions in the entire game. Thresh changed what support players could do with his lantern saves. Zed and Yasuo became the go-to picks for anyone who wanted to style on opponents. Jinx got her own music video and a huge fanbase long before Arcane was a thing.

Draven, released in 2012, is often called champion #50. His axe-catching mechanic was fresh. You actually got rewarded with bonus gold for playing well, which earlier ADCs didn’t offer.

Riot slowed the release rate to roughly 6-19 per year during this window. Champions got more dev time and better lore. Braum showed up with a shield that blocked projectiles for his whole team. Azir commanded sand soldiers. Gnar switched between a tiny yordle and a hulking beast mid-fight. Kits were getting more complicated, and players liked it.

If you care about the Arcane connection, I went through every skin from the show on the Arcane skins page.

2015-2017: Five LoL Champions Released Per Year and the 100th Champion

By 2015, Riot was down to about 5 releases per year. With 120+ champions already in the game, every new one had to actually bring something fresh. Most of them did.

Ekko could rewind time, Kindred hunted marked targets across the map, and Jhin had this weird obsession with the number four (literally only four shots before reloading). Camille had blade legs and could one-shot squishies off one combo. Xayah and Rakan came in 2017 as a bot lane duo that was actually designed around playing together, which was a first.

Also in 2017: Zoe. Champion #100 according to most counts. She’d grab your flash and ignite off the ground and spam them from a screen away. People absolutely hated playing against her, but I’ll give Riot credit, the kit was creative. Most players had a strong opinion about Zoe, and it was rarely positive.

2018-2019: Fewer LoL Champion Releases, Bigger Kits

2018 was a rework year more than anything. Only three genuinely new champs came out (Kai’Sa, Pyke, Neeko) but the Akali, Irelia, Nunu, and Aatrox reworks changed those characters so much you could argue they were new releases too. RIP old Aatrox mains.

2019 picked the pace back up with 5 releases. Sylas was the big one as champion #150. He could copy any enemy ult and throw it back at their team. That forced everyone to rethink what ultimates they were picking into. Qiyana used terrain elements as weapons. Senna was built to work as either marksman or support from the start, which hadn’t been done before.

Want to grab a skin for one of these champs? I wrote up all the ways to get Riot Points without overpaying.

2020-2022: Overloaded Kits and Hot Takes

Aphelios dropped in late 2019 but defined the 2020 meta. Five different weapons, a spreadsheet worth of interactions, and a kit so dense that Riot had to publish a guide just for his ability descriptions. The “200 years of game design experience” meme started here.

2020 gave us Sett, Lillia, Yone (Yasuo’s brother, back from the dead), Samira, and Seraphine. Yone quickly became one of the most played champions in the game. Seraphine sparked controversy because of design overlap with Sona.

2021 was slower. Just 4 champions, partly because COVID-19 messed up the development pipeline. Viego could literally possess enemy champions after killing them. Gwen had an untargetable mist zone that made her impossible to hit from outside. Both were frustrating to deal with on release.

K’Sante, Nilah, and Bel’Veth all landed in 2022. K’Sante got the most attention because his kit was absurdly loaded for a “tank.” Threads on the league subreddit were going off about it for weeks. The Skarner rework and Udyr VGU also happened that same year, and Udyr went from “who plays that champ” to permaban overnight.

2023-2025: Three Champions Per Year, Higher Standards

2023 had Milio, Naafiri, Briar, and Hwei. Riot settled into a groove of about 3-4 releases per year at this point. Hwei was probably the most interesting one of the bunch because he had 10 abilities across three stances, which is a lot to keep track of in a teamfight.

2024 brought Smolder, Aurora, and Ambessa (timed with Arcane Season 2). Just 3 releases, but each tied to a seasonal theme Riot was experimenting with.

2025 followed the same pace. Mel came in January tied to the Noxus season. Yunara dropped mid-year when the Ionia theme was running. Zaahen closed things out in November with the Darkin season. Three total, and each one matched a story arc Riot was pushing that split.

Wondering when each split starts and ends? I keep a LoL season start and end dates page updated with the exact dates.

2026 Champion Release: Only Locke Confirmed

Riot confirmed in March 2026 that only one new champion will release this year. That champion is Locke, from Demacia, expected mid-year during the second seasonal split. He’s reportedly an AP-oriented assassin or bruiser, possibly using petricite weapons.

Why just one? Most of Riot’s champion team switched over to League Next, a big engine and visual overhaul they’ve been building for over a year. It’s not League 2. It’s more like a full modernization of how the game looks and runs under the hood.

Besides Locke, Riot confirmed a Shyvana visual and gameplay update and at least one more rework (Lee Sin changes are rumored). So new content is still coming. Just not in the form of brand new champions this year.

How the LoL Champion Release Rate Changed Over 17 Years

The drop in yearly releases says a lot about where Riot’s priorities went:

• 2009-2011: 30+ champions per year. Speed over polish. Simple kits, fast iteration.
• 2012-2014: 6-19 per year. Kits got deeper, lore grew, esports demanded better balance.
• 2015-2019: 3-5 per year. Every champion needed a real reason to exist.
• 2020-2025: 3-4 per year. Reworks became as important as new releases.
• 2026: 1 confirmed release. Dev resources shifted toward League Next.

172 champions across 17 years. The first few years packed in the numbers. After that, Riot slowed down and made each release count. And reworks like Skarner, Udyr, and soon Shyvana show that even old champions can feel new again without adding another name to the roster.

Milestone Champions in LoL Release Date History

Champion #50: Draven (2012)

Bonus gold from catching axes was something nobody had seen before in a MOBA. The ego on this character was unreal too, which fit the mechanic. Draven was basically Riot saying “what if we made an ADC that rewards you for being good AND has zero humility?”

Champion #100: Jayce (2012) / Zoe (2017)

People argue about this on Reddit constantly. If you go by raw count Jayce was #100, and he had the whole hammer/cannon stance swap thing going on (eight abilities, first time that happened). But some lists put Zoe at #100 because of how they count beta releases. Either works. I’m not getting into that debate again.

Champion #150: Sylas (2019)

The Unshackled broke a rule nobody knew existed: your ult wasn’t safe anymore. Sylas made drafting a puzzle. If you picked a strong ult, he’d use it against you. If you picked a weak ult to deny him, you were handicapping yourself. That tension didn’t exist before he showed up.

Champion #172: Zaahen (2025)

The most recent release. Zaahen is a Darkin who chose to be sealed to avoid madness and returned using Xin Zhao’s body as a host. His release was tied to the Darkin-themed season and closed out 2025’s champion lineup.

Every milestone champ got skins too. The full catalog is on our LoL skins page if you want to browse.

After 172: What’s Next for the LoL Champion Roster

2026 has the thinnest champion release schedule League has ever seen. Locke is the only confirmed new champ. But the game itself is far from quiet.

League Next is the big deal this year. Riot is overhauling the game’s engine and visual systems. Old champions will get graphical upgrades, new items show up almost every patch, and ranked got restructured at the start of the year with role quests and new vision points.

Competitive side is still going strong too. Worlds is in NA this year and goes back to Korea for 2027.

We’re never seeing 24 new champions in one year again, that era is dead. But honestly the game doesn’t need it anymore. Between reworks, new items every patch, and biweekly balance updates, the meta shifts enough to keep things interesting. If you’re wondering what all this League time cost you over the years, the LoL spending checker can tell you (you might not want to know though).

FAQ: LoL Champions by Release Date

How many champions are in League of Legends in 2026?

172 right now. Zaahen (November 19, 2025) was the last addition, and Locke should be the only one we get in 2026.

Who was the first champion released in League of Legends?

No single “first” because 17 of them launched at once during Alpha Week 2 on February 21, 2009: Annie, Ashe, Ryze, Teemo, Warwick, etc. More got added through beta and launch, so there were 40 total when the game went live October 27, 2009.

Who is the newest LoL champion in 2026?

Zaahen. He came out in patch 25.23 as a Darkin top laner/jungler. Next up is Locke, a Demacian champ expected around mid-2026.

Which year had the most LoL champion releases?

2009 wins if you count everything (alpha, beta, launch adds together = 40). For normal post-launch years, 2010 and 2011 tied at 24 apiece, and nothing since has gotten anywhere close to those numbers.

Who was the 100th League of Legends champion?

Jayce, if you go by total count. The hammer/cannon stance switching gave him eight abilities, which was a first. Whether Riot actually planned him for the 100 spot or it just happened that way, nobody has ever confirmed.

Why is Riot releasing fewer champions now?

Every new champ takes way longer to make now. The kits are complicated, the art bar went up, and Riot started spending more time fixing old champions instead of making new ones. On top of that, the whole champion team is heads-down on League Next right now. That’s why 2026 only gets one.

What is the next League of Legends champion after Zaahen?

Locke is next. He is from Demacia, expected to arrive mid-2026 during Season 2. Leaks suggest he is an AP assassin or bruiser using petricite weapons. Riot confirmed he will be the only new champion released in 2026.

What is the fastest way to unlock all champions?

Grind games for Blue Essence. You get BE from leveling up, and the free rotation lets you try 16 champs per week for free. You need at least 20 owned champions before ranked lets you in. Or you can grab a smurf account that already has BE loaded so you can buy whoever you want from day one.

Written by Max Daelon. Last updated: March 2026.