Unofficial Poll Shows Interesting Trends in League of Legends Toxicity

Riot Games, the developers and reformed(?) misogynists of League of Legends fame, have had a long and uphill battle trying to deal with their games infamous toxicity problem. Indeed, the game has a legendary reputation for being a den of insults, attacks, and threats, and while Riot Games has been working hard to fix the problem, they’ve clearly still got a long ways to go, as anyone who’s played the game in the past year could probably tell you.

But if you’re the kind of person who refuses to believe something unless it’s in numerical format, then I have good news for you: a fellow named Celianna recently posted an enormous collection of home-grown statistics about League of Legends on Imgur, which tracks everything from the gender ratio of players, how many players play each mode, what the preferred role is, and more. It’s a worthwhile look-see if you’re a fan of statistics or League of Legends, but we’re going to look at the most interesting, news-worthy statistics: toxicity.

According to the statistics (which 3,784 people responded to a sizable number but a small sample size of League’s total player base), 98 percent of people claim that they have been flamed during a game of League of Legends – and when you consider that 2 percent is the margin of error for surveys that have over 2,000 responders, that probably means the number is closer to 100 percent. Furthermore, 79 percent of people claim they were flamed after a game: a number that’s probably only lower because it’s easier to just quit the post-game stats than deal with whatever crap your salty teammates want to send your way.

As for what kind of harassment people dealt with, the majority of it was mere flaming and cussing out. Other ways, like stalking or sexual remarks and prepositions, happened less frequently, although they happened far more often for female players than men for reasons that should be painfully obvious.

Also interesting, female players are less likely to be toxic, but they’re also less likely to stop being toxic if they start. Men are far more likely to be toxic, but also more likely to reform their ways.

Again, there are a lot of cool stats here, so give it a look if you have time. And you play League of Legends. And if you care.