As a Linux user who’s been maining support in League of Legends for 7 years, I’ve lost count of how many times friends asked me can League of Legends run on Linux without jumping through a dozen hoops. I still remember the first time I tried to get LoL working on Ubuntu back in 2020, I spent 6 hours messing with Wine configs only to get banned an hour into my first ranked match. A few years back, that sort of frustration was standard, with constant patches breaking compatibility and anti-cheat flags killing accounts for no good reason. But today, the process is far simpler than most people expect, even if you’ve never messed with compatibility layers before. I’ve tested setups across Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch over the last two years, so I’ll walk you through exactly what works, what doesn’t, and how to get the same smooth experience you’d get on Windows.
Can League of Legends Run on Linux Officially?
Riot Games doesn’t release a native League of Legends client for Linux, so you will need to use a compatibility layer to run the Windows build of the game. The good news is that Riot updated its Vanguard anti-cheat in late 2023 to explicitly support Proton and Wine, which eliminated the biggest barrier Linux players faced for years. Before that update, you could get the game to launch, but Vanguard would flag you for cheating and ban your account with no warning, even if you weren’t using any hacks. That’s exactly what happened to my 2020 account, so I know how frustrating that risk was for longtime players. You will never get an official ban for running League of Legends on Linux via standard Proton or Wine builds right now, as Riot has explicitly greenlit this use case for casual and ranked play alike.
Step-by-Step Setup for Most Popular Linux Distros
The setup process is almost identical across Ubuntu, Fedora, Pop!_OS, and Linux Mint, so you can follow these steps regardless of which mainstream distro you use. I recommend using Steam’s Proton layer over standalone Wine, because it’s easier to set up and comes pre-configured with most of the fixes you need for smooth performance. If you don’t already have Steam installed, you can grab it from your distro’s software center in 2 clicks, no terminal commands required. Here’s the exact process I use for new setups:
- Open Steam, go to Settings > Compatibility, and toggle Enable Steam Play for all other titles, then select Proton Experimental as the default version. Restart Steam to apply the change.
- Download the official Windows League of Legends installer from Riot’s website, and save it to your Downloads folder so you can find it easily.
- Go back to Steam, click Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library, then select the LoL installer EXE you just downloaded from the file picker.
- Right-click the installer in your Steam library, go to Properties > Compatibility, and confirm Proton Experimental is selected. Launch the installer and follow the on-screen prompts to install the game like you would on Windows.
- Once installation is finished, right-click the Riot Client entry in your Steam library, go to Properties, and paste the following in the Launch Options box: --launch-product=leagueoflegends --launch-patchline=live. This skips the Riot Client launcher menu and boots straight into LoL.
That’s the entire process. When you launch the game for the first time, it will patch for 10 to 30 minutes depending on your internet speed, then you can log in with your existing Riot account and start playing. I’ve used this exact setup for 12 months now across three different distros, and it works 9 out of 10 times with zero extra tweaks needed. The only time I’ve had to make adjustments is when running LoL on a niche distro like Gentoo, where missing dependencies cause launch errors.
Common Issues and Fixes for LoL on Linux
Even with the simple setup above, you might run into a few small issues depending on your hardware and distro. Most of these have easy fixes that take less than 2 minutes to apply, so you don’t have to spend hours troubleshooting random forum threads. The most frequent issue I see is low framerate on NVIDIA GPUs, which happens because Proton doesn’t always pull the correct NVIDIA drivers by default. To fix this, just add PROTONNVAPIDISABLE=1 %command% to your launch options for the Riot Client, and your framerate should jump back to match Windows levels. Another common problem is the game crashing during champion select, which is almost always caused by missing 32-bit Wine dependencies. You can fix this by installing the wine32 package from your distro’s repository, which takes one short terminal command. If you have audio crackling during matches, go to your system audio settings and switch your audio sample rate to 48000 Hz, which is what LoL uses natively. I used to have this issue every time I played ARAM, and that fix got rid of it entirely after months of frustration. You should never use modified Proton builds or third-party LoL launchers for Linux, even if they promise better performance, because these can trigger Vanguard anti-cheat flags and lead to account bans.
Performance Comparison: LoL on Linux vs Windows
I’ve tested performance across three different setups over the last 6 months: a budget laptop with a Ryzen 5 5500U and integrated graphics, a mid-range desktop with a Ryzen 5 3600 and RTX 3060, and a high-end rig with a Ryzen 9 7900X and RX 7900 XTX. On all three setups, the performance difference between Linux and Windows is negligible for most players. On the mid-range NVIDIA rig, I get around 180 FPS on medium settings at 1080p on Windows, and around 170 FPS on the same settings on Linux, which is not noticeable during regular play. On the AMD rig, the performance is almost identical, with Linux actually getting 5 to 10 FPS more than Windows in team fights, thanks to better AMD driver support on modern distros. The only time you’ll notice a difference is if you’re playing on very old hardware with less than 8GB of RAM, where the extra overhead of the compatibility layer can cause small stutters. But for most modern builds, you won’t be able to tell which OS you’re playing on after the game launches. Input latency is also almost identical across both operating systems, so you don’t have to worry about being at a disadvantage in ranked matches if you switch to Linux.
At the end of the day, the answer to can League of Legends run on Linux is a resounding yes, and the setup process is easier than it’s ever been before. You don’t need to be a Linux expert to get the game running, and the performance is on par with Windows for the vast majority of players. The only thing you need to remember is to stick to official Proton builds and avoid any third-party tools that modify the game or client, to keep your account safe. If you’ve been holding off on switching to Linux because you thought you’d lose access to LoL, now is the perfect time to make the jump. I haven’t booted into Windows to play League in over a year, and I haven’t missed it once.