Arcane is the most expensive animated series in television history

The studio Riot Games would not have, but then not at all, looked at the expense for its major series derived from League of Legends.

Finally, season 2 is here. Saturday, the first part of the final chapter ofArcana will be broadcast on Netflix. And the platform is banking a lot on this story in the universe of League of Legends. Just like Riot Games.

Because according to Variety, the studio which owns the license LoL spent approximately $250 million to produce and promote the 18 episodes ofArcana. This is the highest amount ever spent on an animated series in streaming or on linear television, despite the low number of episodes upon arrival.

Variety goes further and talks about “excessive spending and unfulfilled ambitions“, from the video game studio, which “reflect the company's inexperience in navigating the intricacies of entertainment production“.

The production of season 1 ofArcana would thus have cost more than 80 million dollars, while the price of the upcoming second season is around 100 million dollars. In addition to the animation, the production requested a “large workforce“. And Variety adds that season 2 “is“t entered production without a script for each episode, which caused significant delays” and therefore expensive.

Riot also spent around $60 million of its own funds to promote Season 1 ofArcane, “much more than Netflix spent” on his side.

Finally, the studio had to write a $5 million compensation check to the Russo brothers, after giving up on making a film League of Legends in 2020, which Anthony and Joe Russo were to develop.

It should be noted that thanks to its license LoLRiot Games had a turnover of around $1.5 billion in 2023.

And all this spending also made it possible to produce one of the most acclaimed animated series of recent years, adored by fans and even crowned with Emmy Awards. Arcana was well worth it.