A lot of players have begun to question the player count of League of Legends, but this is a difficult thing to peg down. Some speculation has come from streamers, who frequently vent by blaming the game or developers, and some has come from veteran players upset at the current state of the game. It’s no surprise that players like Tyler1 have had lots of disparaging comments to say about the game, including calling LoL a “dead game” and stating that the only reason anyone plays the game is because of the support of streamers like himself. Other streamers, like Hashinshin, have also constantly insulted the devs and the integrity of the game, which begs the question – is League of Legends dying?

The short answer is no. The long answer is that it’s complicated. Riot is the only one that actually knows the numbers behind their player count. Unless Riot feels the need to release those numbers, everything else is speculation. There are a few things that can help point us in the right direction of an answer though.

For instance, the last time Riot did release numbers was in 2016. At the time, they confirmed that they had over 100 million players a month. This was in a Polygon interview with co-founders Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill and Brandon “Ryze” Beck. That was over a year and a half ago, so while that number absolutely crushes nearly every other game out there, we have few ways of knowing what it is now. Even if that number dropped dramatically though, it would still have one of the highest user bases on the planet, and calling it a ‘dead game’ would be a hard sell.

Also, reports from Tencent – Riot’s parent company – don’t paint a picture of a struggling company. In the second quarter report from 2017 – accounting for profits up to June, 2017 – Tencent reported happily on the continued growth of Riot.

But League of Legends isn’t just performing financially. Last year’s Worlds tournament saw its highest viewer count ever with 57 million fans tuning in. That represents an increase of 14 million viewers – or a 32% increase – from last year. On the esports front, League of Legends certainly isn’t losing much.

However, none of these are indications that the player count has not gone down by some degree. Financially, Riot is doing well, and in esports, the company is continuing to grow. If League of Legends is losing players, it isn’t enough for them to notice, and it isn’t enough to slow their profits or success.