It's been a wild ride this year for the autobattler genre, and Riot Games isn't about to get off the hype train anytime soon. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. In their own words: "We are doubling down."

In a blog, written by TFT Product Lead Richard "MapleNectar" Henkel, the company shares that Teamfight Tactics averages 33 million monthly active players. Moreover, Teamfight Tactics increased the all-time peak of concurrent League of Legends players by 30%.

As can be seen in the table below, quite some hours have been spent in Teamfight Tactics since its launch earlier this year. Riot's blog states that China is a huge contributor to the rapid increase in player numbers - 35% of the growth in total game hours stems from the country. In total, 1.725 billion hours have been spent playing Teamfight Tactics so far.

Teamfight Tactics esports

So far, the popularity of Teamfight Tactics has led to a few minor tournaments—the most popular ones fit the title of showmatch more than that of an intense competition. But Riot Games is committing to Teamfight Tactics esports.

MapleNectar says in the blog: "I don’t want to spoil everything, but I will say that we’re committing to building a competitive scene for TFT starting in 2020. The hunger is definitely there—the proportion of ranked to normal games of TFT is 4:1, and the mode is incredibly resonant in some of our most competitive regions like Korea. We want to provide an experience worthy of the players that have dedicated themselves to being the best in the world."

On Twitter, Teamfight Tactics now has a dedicated account where players can follow all the announcements. And of course, memes too.