Riot's 'Arcane' is the first streaming series to win an animated Emmy Award

Netflix's League of Legends-based animated series Arcane has won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program, becoming the first streaming series to win in this category. It beat much better-known competitors including Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty, The Simpsons and What If...? hosted by the late Chadwick Boseman. "It's a big deal for us because we come from video games. It was amazing to see the world embracing our characters and our stories," said Arcane co-creator Christian Linke.

The series stars Ella Purnell (Jinx), Hailee Steinfeld (Vi) and Katie Leung (Caitlyn). It was picked up for a second season by Netflix last winter, suggesting the streamer was ready to embrace big-budget game-based productions. The first season had nearly 34.2 million viewing hours in its first week in Netflix's top 10, ranking it second in views at that time. It also received very positive reviews from critics and audiences.

Riot Games had previously worked closely with animation studio Arcane Fortiche, but acquired a significant non-controlling stake earlier in March. The companies worked together to introduce Jinx to League of Legends in 2013 and plan to join forces on "other projects to be announced" in addition to Arcane, although no specifics are forthcoming. has yet been published.

Meanwhile, What If...? did not leave the Creative Arts Emmys empty-handed, as Boseman received a posthumous award for his voice-over work during the first season. "What a beautifully aligned moment it really is that one of the last things he would work on would not only be to revisit a character that was so important to him... but also for it to be an exploration of something new, to dive into a potential new future,” said his wife Taylor Simone Ledward as he accepted the award.

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