Each League of Legends: Wild Rift match is discrete, with all champions starting off relatively weak but increasing in strength by accumulating items and experience over the course of the game.

League of Legends: Wild Rift is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in the three-dimensional isometric perspective.

[5][6] To be compatible with mobile devices, Wild Rift received some adaptations, making the game faster [clarification needed] compared to the PC version.

Tencent then temporarily pulled marketing plans for Arena of Valor in Europe and North America in 2019, clearing room for Riot Games's announcement of League of Legends: Wild Rift a few months later.

[17] League of Legends: Wild Rift was set to be released on October 27, 2020,[18][19] with a limited alpha launch in Brazil and Philippines in June 2020.

[21] On September 16, 2020, Wild Rift was released in closed beta in Southeast Asia via Google Play and Apple's TestFlight, with more regions to be added at a later date.

On December 10, 2020, the open beta was expanded ahead of schedule to include the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, Middle East, and Turkey.

[5] Jordan Minor from PCMag gave Wild Rift 4 out of 5 stars and called it "a surprisingly capable mobile edition" of League of Legends.

[40] Andrew Webster with The Verge wrote that despite the complexity of League of Legends's gameplay, Wild Rift, in contrast, "does an excellent job of easing in new players by explaining the basics in simple terms".

Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated League of Legends: Wild Rift for Mobile Game of the Year.

[43] Wild Rift's player base in the United States has reportedly been "way less toxic" than League of Legends', which Liao and PC Gamer's Steven Messner attributed to the amount of effort required to type on a smartphone.

[42] Liao observed that despite some occurrences of bickering she encountered "over taking a role someone else wanted", the game "seems to be injecting new life into a community that has grown pretty insular".