If you’ve ever sat in the champion select screen, scrolling for minutes trying to pick a pick that fits your team comp, you’ve probably wondered how many League of Legends characters exist at this point. The roster has grown so much since the game launched back in 2009, when there were only 40 champions available to play. New faces get added every few months, and old champions get full reworks regularly, so even long-time players can lose track of every available option. We’re breaking down the full current count, class splits, how Riot chooses new additions, and simple tips to keep track of the growing pool without feeling overwhelmed.
Current Count of League of Legends Characters
As of the latest champion release, there are 166 unique playable League of Legends champions available across all servers. This count only includes unique, permanent champions, not event-exclusive game mode variants, temporary PBE test characters, or cosmetic skins. Many new players confuse custom skins and alternate universe variants with new characters, but these are just cosmetic changes that don’t add new kits or unique playstyles, so they don’t count towards the total.
The newest addition to the roster is Ambessa Medarda, a Noxian fighter released in late 2024 that fills a gap for high-mobility, engage-focused top lane bruisers. Riot sticks to a consistent schedule of 4 to 5 new champion releases per year, so the total count will go up by a small amount every 2 to 3 months. You don’t have to worry about the roster growing too fast, though: Riot spaces out releases intentionally to give players time to learn new kits and adjust to meta shifts before the next champion drops.
How League of Legends Characters Are Split By Class
All 166 champions are split into 6 core classes, each with a distinct playstyle and role in standard team comps. If you’re new to the game, picking a class that matches what you enjoy doing in matches will cut down on the overwhelm of sifting through over a hundred options. You don’t have to learn every champion to climb ranked, either: most players stick to 2 to 3 classes they enjoy, and only learn matchups for champions they face regularly in their main lane.
- Tanks (24 total): High health, high crowd control champions built to absorb damage for the team and initiate fights. They’re perfect if you don’t care about getting lots of kills but love making big, game-changing plays that win teamfights for your team.
- Mages (38 total): Ranged ability-based damage dealers that usually deal magic damage, either from long range poke or close-range burst windows. Many mages also provide utility like shields, heals, or crowd control to support their team beyond just dealing damage.
- Assassins (21 total): High burst, high mobility champions built to take out high priority targets like enemy ADCs or mages in seconds. They’re very squishy if caught out, but extremely rewarding if you like fast, high-skill play that rewards quick decision making.
- Fighters (34 total): Also called bruisers, these champions blend damage and durability, working best in solo lanes. They can soak up some damage while dealing consistent damage to both enemy front and back lines, making them very flexible picks for most team comps.
- Marksmen (23 total): Also called ADCs, these are mostly ranged physical damage dealers that scale hard into the late game. They’re the main source of sustained damage for most teams, but are very squishy early on and rely on supports to keep them alive.
- Supports (26 total): Built entirely to enable their team, with heals, shields, crowd control and vision tools. They don’t get as many kills or deal as much damage as other classes, but good supports are the backbone of almost every winning ranked team.
Some champions fit into multiple classes, so you may see them show up in two different filters in the champion select screen. For example, Poppy can be played as both a tank and a fighter, but she only counts once towards the total 166 champion count. Hybrid champions are great if you like to swap roles occasionally, as they let you adjust your playstyle to fit your team’s needs without picking a completely new champion.
How Riot Chooses New League of Legends Characters to Add
I’ve followed Riot’s champion development process for almost a decade, and it’s way more collaborative than most players realize. The team doesn’t just add random characters to hit a random count target, every new champion fills a specific gap in the existing roster or explores a new playstyle that hasn’t been tried before. The development process takes between 12 and 18 months per champion, from initial concept to full release.
The first step is playstyle gap testing, where the dev team identifies play patterns that don’t exist in the current roster. For example, if there’s no support champion that focuses on setting up picks for junglers without being a full engage tank, they’ll build a kit around that specific niche. They also prioritize lore consistency, making sure every new champion ties into existing Runeterra lore, usually for a region that hasn’t gotten a new champion in 12 months or more.
Once the initial kit and lore are drafted, the champion goes to the Public Beta Environment (PBE) for testing with thousands of volunteer players. The dev team adjusts the kit, damage numbers, and even lore details based on player feedback for 4 to 6 weeks before the official release. They also release regular champion reworks for older characters that feel outdated, to make sure the entire roster feels viable and fun to play, no matter when they were first added.
Tips for Keeping Track of the Growing Champion Roster
With 166 champions and more being added every year, it can feel overwhelming to keep track of every kit, especially if you’re a new player. The good news is you don’t have to know every champion inside and out to have fun or climb ranked. These simple tips make it easy to stay up to date without spending hours researching every new release.
First, sort champions by your main role in the collection tab of the client. This will hide all champions that aren’t played in your main 1 or 2 roles, so you only have to learn matchups for the 30 to 40 champions you’ll actually face regularly. Second, try new champions in ARAM first before taking them to Summoner’s Rift. ARAM gives you random champions every match, so you can test kits and get a feel for how they play without the pressure of a ranked or normal draft game.
You can also follow the 2-minute champion spotlight videos Riot releases with every new champion, which break down their core abilities, playstyle, and ideal runes in a short, easy to watch format. If you don’t have time to watch videos, the patch notes released every two weeks have a short section on new releases and reworks that only takes a minute to read. I’ve been playing for 8 years and I still haven’t unlocked every champion, because I only play 3 roles and don’t care about unlocking champions I’ll never use. It’s totally fine to stick to the characters you enjoy, rather than trying to collect every single one.
At the end of the day, the exact number of how many League of Legends characters there are will keep changing as Riot adds new faces and updates old ones. What matters most is finding the few champions that fit your playstyle, rather than trying to master every single one. Whether you’re a new player just picking your first main or a long-time player curious about the latest additions, the growing roster means there’s always something new to try in every match. You don’t have to rush to learn all 166, take it one champion at a time and focus on having fun first.