A great anime has become a financial failure: Riot Games hasn't recovered even half of the money it spent on making the Arcane series

A few months ago, the media reported that the budget of the animated series Arcane became a record among the projects of the genre and amounted to $250 million.

Both seasons of Arcane were liked by the public, received excellent reviews and enjoy great popularity, but it turns out that the series was a commercial failure for Riot Games.

Here's What We Know

Bloomberg journalists talked to the employees of Riot Games and analysed all the available information. They calculated that with a budget of $250 million the company received from Netflix for each episode about $ 3 million and from Tencent Holdings Ltd. another $ 3 million for the rights to show the series in China. The tally shows that the total revenue was not even half of the money spent.

Company employees confirm that the main plan of Riot Games was to use Arcane to interest the audience in the League of Legends universe and encourage new players to immerse themselves in the popular MOBA game so that they could spend money on in-game transactions. But in the end, this plan failed, as very few of those who registered in the game after watching the anime stayed in the game and are willing to spend money in it.

Also, according to analysts, Riot Games missed the opportunity to capitalise on the success of Arcane's first season and did not offer any in-game items for League of Legends, although for the second season the company did, but unfortunately players were not interested in in-game items.

Source: Bloomberg