Both seasons of the League of Legends spin-off Arcane cost a total of approximately $250 million to create and promote, making it the most expensive animated series of all time.
That’s according to a new report from Variety, and sources told the publication that the $250 million figure covered the production and promotion costs for Arcane’s two seasons, made up of 18 episodes in total. The first nine episodes of the show are said to have cost “more than $80 million” to produce, while the second set of nine episodes, which will make up the show’s final season, reportedly had a production cost “approaching” the $100 million mark.
Variety states that development costs increased due to “a labor-intensive approach and frequent cost overruns caused by delays in script deliveries after the second season was put into production with only a fraction of the season written.”
Additionally, League of Legends developer Riot reportedly spent $60 million promoting the first season of the animated spin-off, which launched on Netflix in 2021. Variety says this figure is more than what other studios would typically spend to promote a show they weren’t. distributed.
When the publication asked Riot about Arcane’s pricing, Riot co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill said, “We’re more than comfortable with the expense it took to deliver a show that was worthy of our players’ time.” . Merrill would not confirm or deny whether the reported $250 million figure was accurate.
The Riot executive added that the company’s “entertainment ambitions have not changed” since the launch of Arcane. “We never intended to operate as a traditional studio with traditional schedules,” Merrill said. “That did The change as we learned more was our expectations of ourselves: we realized that getting it right takes a lot more time than we originally expected, so we recalibrated our development, production goals, and teams with that in mind.”
The second season of Arcane will air on Netflix starting November 9. As for the first season, our Chris called it “a thrill, full of color and life” in Eurogamer’s review (which was based on the first four episodes), although he still had some reservations. Upon its debut, Arcane later won the Emmy for Best Animated Program.
