League of Legends
Ranked 2 of 3 moba games by recommenders
Recommended for polished gameplay, balancing and being fun and addictive to play. Critics most often point to skin and currency prices that are hard to predict, and to the game needing Windows.
Recommended for polished gameplay, balancing and being fun and addictive to play. Critics most often point to skin and currency prices that are hard to predict, and to the game needing Windows.
42 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 26
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Polished gameplay and balancing
“Balancing in LoL and friends seems somewhat easier because the mechanics change less frequently”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Good software knows when to stop” “very polished in gameplay and balancing”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “League of Legends designer shares game design field manual” Fun and addictive to play
“I fired up LoL classic the other day and I could easily see myself putting another 5k hours into lux”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “'500-hour' Order of the Sinking Star is as complex and exhausting as it sounds” “but can be incredibly fun and addictive”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Stop big tech from making users behave in ways they don't want to” Well made overall
“I think they've actually done a pretty great job.”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “League of Legends designer shares game design field manual” “it's obviously very well made”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “League of Legends designer shares game design field manual”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Expensive skins and microtransactions
“you can buy X RP, but a champion or skin or whatever costs either less or more, never the exact amount”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Roblox Is Minting Teen Millionaires” “Games like Fortnite and League of Legends went down this road and ended up at even more unfathomable $500 microtransactions.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm” “Nowadays they engage in gacha, with skins effectively costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “League of Legends designer shares game design field manual” Hard to run outside Windows
“Riot added it retroactively after years of effort to patch Wine to work with League's weird quirky code”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Games using anti-cheats and their compatibility with GNU/Linux or Wine/Proton” “Only league of legends forces me to dual boot into windows every once in a week or so”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “O&O ShutUp10 – The antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11” “that is unusable because the Riot servers don't allow updating/connecting from it”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” Hostile treatment of players
“Riot Games is an extraordinarily player-, community-, and pro-player-hostile company.”
Comment from 25 Jul 2026 in “League of Legends designer shares game design field manual” “You will eventually get banned from the game if you choose the "wrong" play style.”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Rainbow Six Siege Hacked as Players Get Billions of Credits and Random Bans”
Other moba games people recommend
The two most recommended other moba games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dota 2 | 28 | 12 | 70% | 12 | — | Approved |
| League of LegendsThis page | 16 | 26 | 38% | 8 | — | — |
| Deadlock by Valve | 11 | 1 | 92% | 7 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 48 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“LoL classic is indeed a bad example, but that's because Riot didn't deliver”
“LoL classic has not been as successful as wow”
“World of Warcraft and League of Legends are both great examples of this.”
“I fired up LoL classic the other day and I could easily see myself putting another 5k hours into lux”
“The brain trust over there use ELO and its caused everyone to think Elo is an acronym with the wrong pronunciation.”
“Only league of legends forces me to dual boot into windows every once in a week or so”
“The new art style was bad enough to get me to quit the game.”
“Nowadays they engage in gacha, with skins effectively costing hundreds or thousands of dollars.”
“I'll never come back to LoL or Valorant because it's no longer the game I was playing.”
“very polished in gameplay and balancing”
“I just think it's a mediocre game that was well marketed at the right time to go "viral".”
“I think they've actually done a pretty great job.”
“Riot Games is an extraordinarily player-, community-, and pro-player-hostile company.”
“There's a lot of weird code and technical debt in the game client.”
“it's obviously very well made”
“if the biggest multiplayer games straight up don't support it, that needs to be acknowledged”
“Avoiding to play games that take over my system on a low-level is a no go”
“And I can have mine with League of Legends.”
“how mismanaged the project was at Riot”
“if one piece breaks, the whole UI becomes unusable anyways”
“entirely unrecognizable today compared to 2016”
“Stop playing Valorant/LoL until its available, its as simple as that really.”
“but can be incredibly fun and addictive”
“a League of Legends account I can no longer even use”
“StarCraft, LoL, DOTA are likely more relevant.”
“League was only just barely tolerable”
“you can buy X RP, but a champion or skin or whatever costs either less or more, never the exact amount”
“Balancing in LoL and friends seems somewhat easier because the mechanics change less frequently”
“Even ran WoW and League of Legends etc just fine”
“League of Legends is great honestly, and able to be played daily with no toxicity or rage.”
“I feel scammed after putting lot of money in a game and suddenly losing the ability to play it.”
“Valorant, LoL, BF6 or CoD also don't work ime”
“not getting involved in the mean bullshit you get in games like League of Legends”
“he probably regrets learning LoL”
“Even Valorant or League have 10 players in a match”
“that is unusable because the Riot servers don't allow updating/connecting from it”
“You will eventually get banned from the game if you choose the "wrong" play style.”
“Games like Fortnite and League of Legends went down this road and ended up at even more unfathomable $500 microtransactions.”
“Riot added it retroactively after years of effort to patch Wine to work with League's weird quirky code”
“I prefer league simply because of that.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.