Bite Marks, the League of Legends Season One Cinematic, is breaking records thanks to Arcane.
Bite Marks, the cinematic to celebrate the Noxus-themed League of Legends season, broke records as it becomes the most-viewed cinematic on the game's YouTube channel in under a week. In particular, Katarina caught the eye of online users.
Arcane Season 2 left viewers in shambles and hungry for more. It just so happens that Bite Marks, the cinematic for LoL Season One, is the closest one we got. Animated by Fortiche, the same studio that made Arcane, and featuring Mel Medarda, the cinematic acts as an epilogue to the well-beloved series. It also introduced a new roster of characters to the Arcane-only fandom, an act that sparked discourse on social media.
Bite Marks dethrones The Call
The Bite Marks cinematic hit 168 million views in just 5 days since it went live. This massive view number beats The Call, the Season 2022 cinematic, which has garnered 165 million views across three years.
The success of the Season One cinematic is no doubt thanks to Arcane. With showrunner Christian Linke confirming that Arcane will not be getting a third season, fans are hungry for any Arcane content. Bite Marks followed Mel Medarda as she returns to the shores of Noxus after the events of Arcane Season 2.
The cinematic showed her learn more about the Black Rose and seeing visions of the Immortal Bastion, hinting at Mordekaiser's return. It also gave us an early look at Mel's abilities as a playable champion!
In total, Bite Marks is the 9th most-viewed video on the League of Legends YouTube channel. The eight videos above it are:
- Warriors (ft. Imagine Dragons) | Worlds 2014 (437 million)
- K/DA - MORE ft. Madison Beer, (G)I-DLE, Lexie Liu, Jaira Burns, Seraphine (Official Music Video) (223 million)
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Discourse between Arcane and League of Legends fans
The cinematic also caused some discussion in social media. Mel Medarda is the only character from Arcane (not counting LeBlanc/"the Mysterious Sorceress") who is present in Bite Marks. The rest of the cast was composed of characters familiar to LoL players, but new to Arcane fans. Darius, Trundle, Vladimir, LeBlanc, Elise, and Katarina made appearances. The latter two were in their Masque of the Black Rose looks, and in Fortiche's style, they looked good.
So good, in fact, that they were in the center of debates and heated arguments online. Katarina and Elise were being shipped together by some Arcane fans, while the League of Legends lore-heads were more than enthusiastic to let them know of Katarina and Garen's romantic involvement.
Nevertheless, it's still great that many are being introduced to the expansive story and characters of Runeterra.
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