'League of Legends: Wild Rift' Coming to iOS Next Year

Riot Games has revealed that League of Legends: Wild Rift will launch on iOS in 2020. Riot says this is a new version of the original wildly popular MOBA title, which launched on PC 10 years ago, and it's built from scratch to take advantage of the mobile platform.

Rumors that League of Legends would be making its way to smartphones first appeared in May, but the official confirmation arrived on Tuesday during a series of Riot announcements posted to YouTube to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary.

Wild Rift will feature the same five-on-five gameplay that made its PC counterpart a success, but individual matches are shorter at around 15 to 20 minutes long. There's also a twin-stick control scheme that Riot says will allow for quicker responses and faster battles.

Otherwise, players can expect the familiar LoL elements, like 5v5 maps and lots of playable characters from the existing roster of champions.

League of Legends is still one of the most popular PC games in the world, but sources suggest that revenue dipped last year, down 21 percent from 2017.

Given the drop off, a brief survey of the MOBA mobile landscape is enough to realize that the game's arrival on iPhone and Android was the logical next step. Titles like Fortnite and PUBG have shown that if a game's mechanics can be translated successfully to touchscreen devices, then expanding to mobile can prove hugely successful.

Riot plans to launch the mobile version "everywhere in the world by the end of 2020," followed by the game's debut on console. Alpha and beta versions of the game will be released in the next few months, rolling out in China first.