A lot of people greeted the news that Netflix was teaming up with Riot Games for a League of Legends series with a shrug. After all, it’s not like video game adaptations have a stellar reputation and, as great as League of Legends is, it’s way more focused on gameplay than story. So it’s causing something of a shock in the industry that Arcane is becoming a monster hit.
Not only does it have a 100% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes (with a 98% viewer score), but it’s climbed to a colossal 9.4 on IMDB after 10,000 user ratings. That makes it the highest-scoring Netflix Original Show of all time, beating back luminaries like The Last Dance (9.1), When They See Us (8.9), and Black Mirror (8.8).
You could argue that a show aimed at tech-savvy gamers has the advantage when it comes to online reviews. However, Castlevania targets a similar demographic and only comes in at 8.3. As more people rank the show, Arcane‘s rating is likely to decrease, though the .3 gap means it could fall a long way and still stay on the throne.
My theory as to why Arcane is doing so well is that League of Legends’ focus on gameplay actually aids the show. While the game does a lot of in-depth lore, the show has been able to go its own way and tell a story you don’t need to be familiar with the game to appreciate. Indeed, many people say they hadn’t realized this is based on an existing property.
Contrast that with Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, which practically mandates viewers are up to date on the video game’s complex chronology to understand and it becomes clear why this is such a smash. And, not to beat around the bush, it also kicks a lot of ass.
Arcane is available to stream on Netflix.