The next League of Legends champion has not been announced. As of patch 26.21 (live October 21, 2026), Riot has confirmed no new champion after Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, who landed in patch 26.13 on June 24. Riot said back in March that Locke would be the only new champion of 2026, and it has named nothing for 2027 either. Most of the champion team moved onto League Next, the big 2027 overhaul, so anyone naming “the next LoL champion” right now is guessing. Below you get what Riot has actually confirmed, what it has only teased, what is pure leak, and a table of the last 11 releases showing how new champions really behave in ranked, which matters more for your climb than any rumour.
If you came here for Locke himself, our Locke guide covers his build, matchups and whether he is worth learning. This page is about what comes after him.
Is there a new LoL champion coming? What Riot has confirmed
The short version: Riot has confirmed that nothing is coming yet. Here is what is on the record, and where each piece comes from.
- Locke is the only 2026 champion. Riot’s head of League, Andrei “Meddler” van Roon, answered in the Reddit thread for Riot’s March 2026 “Ranked, Shyvana & More” dev update: “One new champ this year, around the middle of the year. Most of the team that normally make new champs are helping out with the large update.” Locke shipped June 24 in patch 26.13, and that is the whole 2026 lineup.
- Nothing is confirmed for 2027. Riot has not named, teased or dated a single 2027 champion. What it has confirmed about League Next is a visual reimagining that includes champions, which is a new coat of paint on the existing roster, not new names on it.
- League Next is where the champion team went. League Next was revealed in December 2025 and is planned for 2027. It covers a client merged into the game engine, a full visual redo of Summoner’s Rift, rune and pre-game changes, a new player experience, and a visual reimagining of the game “including champions and the user interface.” The League Next page on the League of Legends Wiki collects Riot’s statements, including that most of the team normally building champions was moved onto it.
- Worlds 2026 will show something, not everything. Meddler has said the League Next showcase at Worlds (Oct 15 to Nov 14) is a small update and not a full reveal, specifically to avoid setting unrealistic expectations.
- The latest dev posts have no champion in them. Riot’s September dev update (Sept 8) covered Team Voice, League Classic, ARAM: Mayhem and Ranked 5s, and said nothing about a new champion. The two /dev posts since then, on League Classic (Oct 14) and a Mel midscope (Oct 20), don’t mention one either.
- Nothing has shipped or hit the PBE. Patch 26.20 (the Worlds patch) and patch 26.21 (live October 21) added no new champion, and neither PBE cycle had one in it.
One more signal, for the lore-watchers: Riot used to publish “Champion Roadmap” posts twice a year, with silhouettes and teasers for the next few releases. The last one went up in April 2023. Nothing replaced it, which is why every “next champion” rumour now comes from leakers and not from Riot.
Confirmed, teased or speculation: the full picture
If something does not come from Riot or the PBE, treat it as fan fiction with good production values. The table sorts every claim you are likely to see into three buckets.
| Claim | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Locke is the newest champion (26.13, June 24 2026) | Confirmed | Riot, live on servers |
| Locke is the only champion released in 2026 | Confirmed | Meddler (Riot) on Reddit, March 2026 |
| League Next launches in 2027 and has most of the champion team | Confirmed | Riot statements, collected on the LoL Wiki |
| League Next will visually update champions | Confirmed in scope, details unknown | Riot, League Next description |
| Something about League Next shows at Worlds 2026 | Teased | Meddler: an update, not a full reveal |
| A female elemental champion, possibly from Ixtal, in 2027 | Speculation | Leaker Big Bad Bear, reported by Escorenews |
| Five new champions arrive with League Next | Speculation | Unverified screenshot, reported by Escorenews |
| A new champion is confirmed for 2027 | Not confirmed | No Riot statement names or dates one |
| A new champion drops before the end of 2026 | Contradicted | Riot said one champion in 2026, and it was Locke |
Even the leaker behind the elemental-champion rumour told people to take it with a grain of salt, and a champion two years out from release can change completely. The same question comes up every few weeks in the r/leagueoflegends thread asking the same question, and the honest answer has not changed since June.
Things that look like new champions but are not
A lot of “new champion” headlines this year are about other games or modes, and they confuse people constantly. None of these add a champion to ranked Summoner’s Rift:
- League Classic champion drops. Classic is Riot’s throwback mode with a limited roster, and it adds existing champions in waves. Poppy, Xin Zhao, Shyvana, Galio and Fiora came in patch 26.18, Fizz, Graves, Nami and Nautilus in 26.19, Aatrox, Caitlyn, Irelia, Karma and Quinn in 26.20, and Hecarim, Lucian, Mordekaiser and Yorick in 26.21. They are old champions, new only to that mode.
- Reworks. Riot announced a second, bigger midscope for Mel on October 20. A rework changes an existing kit, so it doesn’t add to the count of 173.
- 2XKO additions. Lux and Samira were announced for 2XKO, Riot’s fighting game. Same characters, different game.
- Wild Rift releases. Wild Rift adds champions from the PC roster on its own schedule, so Yunara “releasing” in July 2026 was a mobile release of a champion PC players have had since 2025.
The last 11 champions and how they landed
This is the part that actually affects your games. The old ranked wisdom says new champions launch weak, sit at a 45% win rate for a month and then get buffed. The patch histories say that stopped being true a while ago. Riot now ships new champions strong and trims them fast.
The table below lists every release since Milio. For the full roster back to 2009, see our list of LoL champions by release date. Dates and release patches come from the League of Legends Wiki’s champion pages, the “first balance change” column is read from each champion’s patch history, and the current numbers are op.gg’s Emerald+ champion stats for patch 26.19, last checked September 2026.
| Champion | Release date | Patch | Main role | First balance change | Win rate now (Emerald+, 26.19) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milio | Mar 23, 2023 | 13.6 | Support | Nerf, launch-patch hotfix | 50.04% |
| Naafiri | Jul 19, 2023 | 13.14 | Mid | Nerf, launch-patch hotfix | 49.78% |
| Briar | Sep 14, 2023 | 13.18 | Jungle | Buff, launch-day hotfix | 51.25% |
| Hwei | Dec 5, 2023 | 13.24 | Mid | Buff, two launch-patch hotfixes | 51.48% |
| Smolder | Jan 31, 2024 | 14.2 | ADC | Small nerf in 14.3, reworked numbers in 14.4 | 48.92% |
| Aurora | Jul 17, 2024 | 14.14 | Mid | Nerf, 14.15 plus a hotfix | 50.82% |
| Ambessa | Nov 6, 2024 | 14.22 | Top | Nerf, 14.24 | 49.45% |
| Mel | Jan 23, 2025 | 25.S1.2 | Mid | Nerf, launch-patch hotfix | 45.35% |
| Yunara | Jul 16, 2025 | 25.14 | ADC | Nerf, 25.18 (bug fixes only before that) | 50.57% |
| Zaahen | Nov 19, 2025 | 25.23 | Top | Nerf, launch-patch hotfix | 50.09% |
| Locke | Jun 24, 2026 | 26.13 | Mid | Nerf, 26.14, then again in 26.15 | 49.68% |
Count it up: 8 of the last 11 champions had a nerf as their first balance change, and four of those nerfs were hotfixes inside the launch patch itself. Only Briar and Hwei got buffed first, both within their first week. That is the pattern to plan around. A brand-new champion is usually at its strongest the day it drops, and the window closes within one or two patches.
So why does it feel like new champions lose? Because the people playing them lose. Launch week is full of players first-timing the champion in ranked, which drags the raw win rate down even when the kit is overtuned. Riot balances around what the champion does in skilled hands, which is why the nerfs come anyway. Locke is the live example: when we researched our Locke guide, op.gg had him at 48.97% in Emerald+ with a 33.7% ban rate. Now he sits at 49.68% after two rounds of nerfs, and he is still banned in 30.30% of games. Players ban what scares them, whatever the win rate says.
If you would rather skip the next few divisions than wait around for Riot to hand you a shiny new toy, our League of Legends boost team climbs on the champions that already work.
What the champion drought means for your ranked climb
With no new champion until at least 2027, the roster you learn now is the roster you will be playing for a long time. That is good news for anyone who has been holding off on committing to a pool.
- Invest in a pool now. There is no release coming to shake up your lane for months. Three to five champions you know cold beat a rotating cast, and our breakdown of how many champions you should actually play explains why.
- Balance patches are the only meta shifts left. With no new kits arriving, what moves the tier list is Riot’s regular patches, plus whatever the Worlds patch (26.20) and the post-Worlds 26.21 patch did to pro-favoured champions. Check a champion tier list broken down by rank after each patch rather than waiting for a new release to save you.
- When a new champion does arrive, do not first-time it in ranked. The data above says it will probably be strong, and it also says it will probably get nerfed within two patches. Learn it in normals, and let everyone else pay the LP tax.
- Punish the first-timers. The flip side: in launch week, the enemy playing the new champion is often on game two. Play safe early, let them misuse their cooldowns, and you are playing against a strong kit with a weak player attached. We saw this constantly the week Locke launched: the Locke player either ran the game or went 0/4 by eight minutes, with very little in between.
- Expect bans. New champions get banned heavily for months. If one of your picks sits in that ban pool, have a second pick ready.
What this read gets wrong
The release table leaves a few things out. “First balance change” only tells you the direction, not the size. Smolder’s first change was a one-point cut to base attack damage, which hardly counts as a nerf. Current win rates are shaped by everything that happened since launch, not just the first patch: Mel sits at 45.35% in mid after a gameplay update in 26.03, which says more about that update than about how she launched, and Riot has since announced a second, bigger Mel midscope. Eleven champions is also a small sample, and Riot’s approach could change again with League Next, when the whole game gets a new coat of paint and possibly new balance philosophy with it.
We also could not rebuild launch-week win rates for all 11 champions. Trackers drop old patches, so we used what Riot actually did in the patch notes instead of guessing at numbers we cannot source.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the next League of Legends champion?
Riot has not confirmed one. Locke, released in patch 26.13 on June 24 2026, is the newest champion, and Riot said he would be the only one this year while most of the champion team works on League Next for 2027.
Is Locke the only new champion in 2026?
Yes. Meddler said on Reddit in March 2026 that there would be one new champion this year, around the middle of the year, and that champion was Locke. Anything else labelled “new” this year is a League Classic, 2XKO or Wild Rift release.
When is the next new LoL champion coming out?
Riot has not given a date. 2026 is done, since Locke was the one champion Riot promised for this year, and no 2027 champion has been announced. The champion team is tied to League Next, which is planned for 2027, and Riot has said its Worlds 2026 showcase will not be a full reveal.
Will League Next have new champions?
Riot has not said. League Next is confirmed to include a visual reimagining that covers champions, and one leak claims five new champions, but that leak is unverified and Riot has not commented on it.
How many champions are in League of Legends?
173, counting Locke, according to the League of Legends Wiki’s champion list.
Are new LoL champions strong when they release?
Usually, yes. Of the last 11 releases, 8 had a nerf as their first balance change and only 2 were buffed, so expect a new champion to be at its strongest in launch week and to be toned down within a patch or two.
So: no new champion is confirmed after Locke, Riot has pointed everything at League Next for 2027, and any name floating around right now is a leak. The practical upshot is a stable roster, so build a small pool, follow the balance patches, and let the next release be someone else’s problem in launch week. If you want your rank moving before 2027 shows up, our team handles division climbs, placements and duo queue on the champions that are already strong.
