League of Legends

League of Legends is an internationally popular multiplayer online battle arena video game created in 2009 by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Riot+Games%22">Riot Games</a>. Commonly called "League," the game and its myriad offshoots include music videos, comic books, short stories, virtual groups, and the animated series Arcane.

In 2014, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Riot%22">Riot</a>'s in-house music team created the virtual heavy metal group <a href="spotify:artist:2qcGTB5s2t9o2w9SrI719s">Pentakill</a>, a League tie-in project that included cameos from <a href="spotify:artist:4b9L0p4cMof32XvjwT9YrX">Tommy Lee</a> (<a href="spotify:artist:0cc6vw3VN8YlIcvr1v7tBL">Mötley Crüe</a>) and Danny Lohner (<a href="spotify:artist:0X380XXQSNBYuleKzav5UO">Nine Inch Nails</a>). The band's 2017 album, Grasp of the Undying, was a streaming hit. <a href="spotify:artist:4gOc8TsQed9eqnqJct2c5v">K/DA</a>, a virtual K-pop girl group, also League adjacent, was partially created to promote a skin line of the same name. The group went viral with their 2018 debut single, "Pop/Stars," which amassed millions of online views, garnering interest from listeners unfamiliar with its gaming origins. In 2019, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Riot%22">Riot</a> unveiled a virtual hip-hop group, True Damage, with the single "Giants." The following year saw <a href="spotify:artist:4gOc8TsQed9eqnqJct2c5v">K/DA</a> issue its debut EP, All Out, and in 2021 the company released the soundtrack for the League of Legends animated series Arcane. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Riot%22">Riot</a> continued to issue incidental music, themes, and remixes under the League of Legends moniker in 2022. In 2023, they unveiled "Paranoia," the debut single from Heartsteel, a virtual boy band featuring vocalists <a href="spotify:artist:4ufh0WuMZh6y4Dmdnklvdl">Baekhyun</a> from the K-pop groups <a href="spotify:artist:3cjEqqelV9zb4BYE3qDQ4O">Exo</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5BHFSMEjfLVx1JwRWjAOsE">SuperM</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2wcrc3fjebDRLVdtRUa3pu">Cal Scruby</a>, ØZI, and <a href="spotify:artist:4T8NIfZmVY6TJFqVzN6X49">Tobi Lou</a>. The original soundtrack for season 2 of Arcane appeared the following year, with the Welcome to Noxus soundtrack arriving in 2025. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi