Riot Games has to compensate more than 1,500 women over sexism

According to reports, Riot Games is going to compensate more than 1,500 current and former employees and contractors after the 2021 discrimination lawsuit for gender discrimination, workplace harassment, as well as other misconduct.

The women at Riot faced discrimination – because they were women. Now the game developer is going to pay for its sexism.

Long before all the Activision Blizzard scandals, Riot Games was in the spotlight for the very same themes that are sadly found over and over again in the gaming industry. More than five years ago, there were reports that Riot Games had a lot of sexism in the workplace and that women were not being treated and paid well.

Riot Games has to pay for bad treatment

Allegedly, the women were repeatedly subjected to discrimination. After several articles about the working conditions of the female employees were published and the story became public, the lawsuit was filed.

Riot Games has agreed to pay $100 million to settle the case. Riot is reported to be making payments of $2,500 to $5,000 to the women who are or were employed by the developer. Payments could be as high as $40,000 depending on how long the employee has worked at Riot and her status at the company. However, seven women have opted out of the settlement.

From 10 million to 100 million dollars

The riot seximus scandal was some time ago. The class action lawsuit was filed in 2018 and was originally supposed to settle for $10 million before the California employment agencies stepped in and demanded a significantly higher payout to the aggrieved workers. The $100 million settlement was announced in 2021 and approved in July 2022.

Riot Games will also need to be monitored for the next three years.
Initial reports in late 2021 put the total number of women eligible for pay at over 2,000, according to the New York Times. As part of the settlement, Riot also committed to internal funding for a diversity and inclusion program and a three-year third-party analysis of gender equity at its company.

How is Riot doing now?

Riot Games began publishing an annual diversity and inclusion report in 2020, and in 2023 the company reported that 27.5% of its global workforce and 26% of its leaders are women. That’s not a bad start per se, but what’s really going on behind the scenes at Riot Games, and whether things have actually improved for women, isn’t entirely clear.

Header: Riot Games