Card games are very popular around the world. And it’s not just Poker. Lots of table games that are played with cards have captured the imagination of hundreds of millions of people.

For gamers, Hearthstone, Slay the Spire, and Balatro are captivating in a way that’s hard to understand by someone who’s a diehard chess fan. Given this fact, it’s no surprise that Riot Games, a company whose video games are played by close to 200 million people, has decided to capitalize on the popularity of League of Legends and create a card game.

Project K

At the moment, Riot’s card game is called Project K and what we know about it is that it will be a physical trading card game (TCG) that will target the Chinese market, at least initially.

This card game will obviously be based on the League of Legends Universe, whose characters, called champions, can easily be used to generate engaging stories and cards.

Some might be tempted to think that a game like LoL, which can be played not just on PC but also on smartphones, does not need an associated card game. But the fact is that Riot Games has already tried to expand its Universe by delving into anime territory and they were very successful at it.

As it turns out, someone who has invested thousands of hours and a lot of money into a sophisticated Universe that’s populated by hundreds of characters will prefer to stay in that Universe in as many ways as possible, and will show great interest in its characters regardless of the media they’re included in.

Why play a random card game when you can play a thematically familiar one?

During the TFT Macao Open, which took place in December 2024, LoL fans had a sneak peek at Riot’s Project K and were very enthusiastic.

We now know that the game will not just copy mechanics from Legends of Runeterra. It will be a game of its own. On top of that, it will have its own competitive ecosystem, which includes national and global competitions.

If Riot moves forward with this plan, the implication is that in the next few years, Project K will become a major game in this niche. No doubt, the main audience will be Riot gamers. Without any familiarity with League of Legends, people will have to invest a lot more time to understand the cards and their backstories.

Expectations

Riot Games is a company that has vast resources at its disposal and a long history of highly successful competitive games. As a result, fans have high expectations from their upcoming card game. There’s absolutely no reason to doubt the company’s ability to enter a new niche, as it has already done with Valorant, and be wildly successful.

Card games, in general, tend to be successful if they’re well-designed and easy to discover. The collectability aspect is very appealing to young people, who love to collect things in general. Add to that the captivating characters and you quickly have not just a card game but a Universe pulsating with life and stories.

Some people have already drawn comparisons to other successful TCGs, such as Magic: The Gathering, and more recent games like Balatro. The expectation is that Project K will obtain a decent percentage of the TCG market, potentially attracting lots of players who are not even familiar with Riot’s video games.

That’s because of the company’s plans to create a professional scene. In general, smaller card games and the companies behind them cannot afford to sustain a large professional circuit. Such a circuit costs millions of dollars. But for Riot Games, that wouldn’t be a problem.

As a result, the thought of learning a new card game and competing in epic tournaments will likely attract all kinds of players to Project K. In addition to this, we already know that Riot Games uses the tactic of making very attractive offers to famous players of rival games. They did it with Counter-Strike 2 players in the FPS niche and they will likely do it again.

Nobody can know for sure at this point that Project K will be a big success, but based on everything we know, the odds of that happening are high.