Is League of Legends Free on Mac?

Gaming on a Windows device is pretty straightforward. In fact, it’s one of the most popular choices. They aren’t too far behind consoles, and they can be a nice long-term choice for people who have other things to do too.. 

Gaming on a Mac, however, can be a hit or miss. It’s either the game you want is on MacOS… or it simply isn’t. 

Add to the fact that it’s just a vicious cycle of Apple not seeing the need to support games because there isn’t a market, developers not importing games to the app store because of this, and people just choosing PC because of the subsequent reasons, and you can see why it’s difficult.

Luckily for us, the really big names and developers do decide to make their games available for Mac users. I realize we’re in the minority here, but popular titles like League of Legends are fortunately here in MacOS. 

In fact, with the release of Apple’s new M1 chip, the Mac could very well be a viable gaming device, especially for casual games. It runs circles around less demanding titles like Stardew Valley, but how about our favorite MOBA? Is there a difference from its Windows counterpart, though? And if so, is it free? Let’s find out.

Also read: Best Second Monitors for iMac and iMac Pro

Define Free-to-Play?

When we say free-to-play, we usually refer to the model developers choose wherein we can play for free, while adding a few extras for a fee to improve the gaming experience. 

Yes, it is the dreaded microtransactions. Some games abuse this, and they put game changing items in the cash shop that heavily push the tides of victory in favor of the cash shop user. Fortunately for us, that isn’t the case here.

League of Legends is definitely free-to-play. You download it for free, and you can play it for free. The few nice extras we were talking about here come in the form of skins. 

These skins don’t affect the gameplay directly, and only serve as a way to show off your favorite champion. You could argue that facing up against an opponent with a really cool legendary skin might rattle you in a psychological level, but that’s another case entirely. 

Also read: Is MacBook Air Good For Gaming

How Does it Run?

Fortunately, League of Legends natively runs on Mac, and that’s saying a lot since most developers don’t even bother. There isn’t a complex process that requires using bootcamp to run Windows or any weird sideloading. 

Yes, yes, thank you for that, Riot. Now if only they could do the same with Valorant. Anyway, in real world use, it’s about as good as you’d expect. Maybe better.

Conclusion

Right now, we’ve established that League of Legends is free, doesn’t offer any unfair advantages to paying players, and can run reasonably well on Mac computers. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Riot’s website and get the game, if you haven’t already!