With Arcane, a series based on the successful MOBA League of Legends has been released. However, it is not only aimed at fans of the game. This seems to make it very successful, as the series is currently ranked number 1 in Netflix charts in 38 countries, including Germany and Austria.
What kind of series is it? Arcane is an animated series based on League of Legends. It tells the story of a two-class society in the world of Runeterra:
- On one side is Piltover, a city that flourishes through advancement and new technologies
- On the other side, there is Zhaun, a place full of scum and criminal gangs
- All characters from Arcane have been introduced in detail here
The story consists of conflicts full of love, hate, jealousy, and longing. It is presented in a very high-quality manner. You do not need any prior knowledge to understand the series. So far, 3 of the planned 9 episodes have been released.
MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski referred to Arcane as the best video game adaptation of all time, and she is seemingly not alone in this opinion.
Arcane pushes Squid Game from 1st place, gets strong rating like Breaking Bad
How is Arcane doing? The Twitter account ChartsLoL regularly reports on the successes surrounding League of Legends, such as when a hit by the band KDA reaches a high position on iTunes or Spotify. In its latest tweet, it shows the successes of the series Arcane, and they are impressive.
In 38 countries, the series is ranked number 1 in the Netflix charts. In a further 38 countries, it reached the top 5, and it is in the top 10 in the USA and UK.
Thus, Arcane has displaced Squid Game from the first place in many countries. The Korean series held this position simultaneously in 91 countries and defended it for weeks. Squid Game was viewed by over 111 million accounts within the first month, making it the most successful series on Netflix overall (via CNN).
The exact viewership numbers for Arcane are expected to be revealed by Netflix in the coming weeks.
However, the website Bloomberg reported that Arcane has been viewed 130 million times in China alone, which, however, does not relate to the actual numbers of Netflix accounts, as the series could also be watched on Twitch and already offers 3 episodes.
How is the series received? Even beyond the charts, Arcane is well received. On the film platform IMDb, the series currently has a user rating of 9.4, which corresponds to the value of the series Breaking Bad and generally ranks 5th among all series (via IMDb).
However, this rating still fluctuates quite a bit, as there are only just over 9,000 ratings for Arcane. In contrast, Breaking Bad has over 1.5 million ratings. Therefore, the ratings could still go down but theoretically also go up.
There are already positive reviews for the first 3 episodes on websites like Movie Pilot, Serienjunkies, Kotaku, or TheVerge. However, many will only provide a proper evaluation once the season is complete.
Can the series maintain the hype? The first 3 episodes of the series are being positively received in both the gaming scene and in general series editorial offices.
Whether Arcane becomes one of the best series ever will also depend on the remaining 6 episodes. Three episodes will be released on both of the upcoming Saturdays.
How did you find Arcane so far? And are you looking forward to the next episodes?
