League of Legends studio is now completely owned by China’s Tencent

Riot Games, the maker of the enormously popular League of Legends multiplayer online arena battler (MOBA), is now 100 percent-owned by China’s Tencent.

Los Angeles-based Riot Games made the announcement somewhat casually as part of a post about changes coming to Riot’s compensation structure. It made no mention of the cost of the transaction, as Tencent probably laid out a lot of money to acquire the remaining equity in Riot Games. League of Legends is often referred to by players and observers as the “biggest game in the world.” That’s because it regularly has millions of people playing it at any one time, but it’s also because the free-to-play PC hit makes approximately $1 billion annually from in-app purchases. That contributes to a MOBA market that generates more than $200 million in revenue every month, according to intelligence firm SuperData Research.