League of Legends launched in 2009 with a roster small enough to learn in an afternoon. Since then, Riot Games has added new champions at a steady clip, and the game now has one of the largest playable rosters of any live-service title - well over 160 champions and growing every year. Keeping track of that roster matters whether you’re a new player figuring out where to even start or a returning player trying to catch up on everyone released since you last logged in.
How the roster is organized
Rather than one flat list, the roster is easiest to understand through two overlapping lenses: lane and class. Lane assignment - top, jungle, mid, bottom (marksman), and support - describes where a champion is typically played, though many champions are flexible enough to appear in more than one. Class is a separate, more mechanical grouping: fighters, tanks, mages, marksmen, assassins, and supports each play by different rules around how they deal damage, how tanky they are, and what role they fill in a teamfight. A champion’s lane and class together give you a fast read on what they’re supposed to do in a match before you’ve even looked at their abilities.
Why release history matters
New champions don’t just add options - they shape the meta around them. A champion released with a particularly strong mechanic often pulls attention (and balance changes) toward or away from existing champions in the same lane or class. Tracking release order also helps make sense of why certain champions share thematic or mechanical DNA - Riot frequently releases champions in “waves” tied to a region of the game’s lore or a specific gameplay identity they’re exploring. Understanding roughly when a champion arrived, and what else came out around the same time, adds useful context to why the roster looks the way it does today.
What this page covers
Here you’ll find the roster broken down by lane and class, an overview of how the champion count has grown year over year since 2009, and a look at recent releases so newer champions don’t get lost in a roster this large. Because Riot adds and reworks champions on an ongoing schedule, treat the specific champion count and most-recent-release details as a snapshot that we keep reasonably current rather than a real-time feed - always check in-game or official patch notes for the very latest additions.
Once you’ve got a handle on who exists, the champion guides section is the natural next step for going deep on any individual champion that catches your interest.