League of Legends skins in 2025 were a perfect snapshot of modern Riot Games: the art team still knows how to absolutely cook, but the monetization keeps trying to get your wallet. Riot isn’t hiding this fact: the new Sanctum with all the Exalted and Mythic variants was created specifically to boost the revenue. The company even considered removing Hextech Chests, but quickly changed its mind after facing backlash.
But we also got quite a lot of one-off skins, and those that weren’t poorly shoehorned into unfitting skinlines that are simply known to sell well. Many of them were from new skin lines, which, hopefully, won’t get diluted by the characters that don’t fit them in the future.
For this “best and worst League of Legends skins of 2025” evaluation, we considered both the model and VFX quality, as well as outside context when it’s applicable.
Worst League of Legends skins of 2025
Reindeer Smolder
Let’s begin with a controversial pick. This one is painful because the splash art is one of the cutest things in existence, with Smolder radiating warmth and festive spirit. But the splash art is what you’re looking at only for 20 seconds before you load into the game, and what’s waiting for you there is the in-game model – quite creepy, a little disjointed, and with all kinds of weird decisions to make him fit the readability of the silhouette.
His wings make zero sense, his tail adds to the visual noise, and his face, with that red nose, is all kinds of unsettling. The idea is interesting, and parts of it are implemented well – his little hooves are incredibly cute. But overall, they could and should have pushed the Rudolph fantasy further: we live in a world where Pug’Maw and Corgi Corki skins exist.
Mythmaker Jhin
In the 4th place, we have Jhin. For him, when a skin is a miss, it’s still better than most champions’ hits; that’s how strong his skin history is. Not this one, though. Which is exactly why Mythmaker Jhin hurts: it should have been a near-guaranteed win: Jhin, mythic festival aesthetic, Legendary tier. But it’s the latter that ended up hurting him.
It shipped in a state that feels strangely undercooked in the places that matter for a Legendary: animation cadence, moment-to-moment feel, and overall polish. It’s something that has become somewhat symptomatic of many Legendary skins in 2025, with many of them feeling like Epic but slightly better. But it’s Jhin, he usually doesn’t miss. And yet, we have this skin.
Grand Reckoning Talon
This skin is just “Talon from Noxus,” which is hilarious because Talon is already from Noxus. The whole point of a skin is to remix or elevate the fantasy. Grand Reckoning Talon mostly re-does it.
Furthermore, his whole vibe feels like a complete rehash of one of his oldest skins – Renegade Talon. Same hoodie, same brooding look. It was one of the first rewards of the Act 2 Battle Pass of the Noxian season, so it was made before Riot’s promise to make BP skins better, but this fact doesn’t help it in any way. One of the most forgettable skins for one of the coolest League characters.
Spirit Blossom Ivern
This skin, however, came out after that promise. Yet, without the context of our final “Worst” pick, this would qualify as easily the worst skin that Riot released this year (this also matters). Spirit Blossom Ivern is just Ivern, but dipped in the Spirit Blossom paint bucket. Yes, it’s a blatant recolor like we used to get in the early days of League for 520 Riot Points.
This is extra rough when the same season has Spirit Blossom skins that actually reframe champions into new mythic, or dare we say, exalted roles. He’s emblematic of the bigger issue: promise or no, battle pass skins felt like quota-filling throughout the year.
Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser
And here he is. His name is Sahn-Uzal, and he was only available through the Sanctum. This new, lore-heavy skin that many people were asking for, considering Mordekaiser’s place in the game’s overarching history, was only available for those who were fine with spending up to $250 in the gacha system, just like Radiant Serpent Sett and Arcane Fractured Jinx.
What makes him worse is that he was delayed because the backlash around his quality was so massive that Riot had to fix him as soon as possible. This embodies the biggest League skin problem: the attempt to get away with less for more. And for that, Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser is our worst League of Legends skin of 2025.
Dishonorable mention: Grand Reckoning Alistar
We’re putting it here because it’s the funniest possible indictment: the skin was so poorly received that it got deleted. It’s very rare for Riot to pull the plug completely: last time it happened was with Sewn Chaos Blitzcrank and Amumu, and those skins were better than this poorly retextured recolor of the base Alistar skin. It’s not #1 on the list purely because you can’t be the worst skin of the year if you don’t exist.
Best League of Legends skins of 2025
Winter Wonder Zeri
Ice skating Zeri was one of those concepts that just immediately made sense, and it was only a matter of time before she was made real and appeared in the game. She already has roller blades, so giving her this theme wasn’t difficult, but Riot went further and made her a Legendary, with enhanced animations and VFX.
There’s a slight blemish in that her wall-jumping animations are reused from her base, but the rest of this skin is just so good that it doesn’t matter. Many champions wish their first Legendary was this good.
Spirit Blossom Springs Yunara
Riot Games seemed to have had a lot riding on Yunara being a success, so they pulled all the stops: she’s conventionally attractive, deeply lore-embedded, and was also featured in expensive cinematics. To guarantee success, they also launched her with a well-executed fanservice skin that’s somehow even more aggressively fanservice than some of the usual suspects like Ahri.
It’s important to note that Spirit Blossom Springs Yunara is not just good in the fancervice department, it’s just incredibly well-executed overall. The water VFX fit her kit’s rhythm and readability, and just look awesome.
Mecha Kingdoms Darius
Mecha Kindgoms is a more primal rehash of the Mecha skinline, and even that’s getting a bit stale now. But not with this Darius skin. Supremely crispy aesthetics are coupled with clean VFX, and this being Darius, he sells every swing and Noxian Guillotine.
Is it his best Legendary ever? You can argue God-King still has a stronger identity, and Dunkmaster has its unmatched, unique appeal. But if you’re a fan of Monster Hunter and want an actually good legendary from 2025, get this.
Spirit Blossom Ashe
This is a curious inclusion that could have easily ended up on the opposite top. Spirit Blossom Ashe is the crowning Legendary of the Spirit Blossom event, and it has everything: incredible animations, one of the best models in the game, and even an evolving bow. But wait a minute, didn’t we think that Legendaries are getting worse and are no longer getting these bells and whistles?
That’s because it’s true. Spirit Blossom Ashe, according to the PBE files, was supposed to be an Exalted skin, with all the attributes that those tend to usually have. But looks like that at some point, Riot reversed the decision, and as a result, we have one of the best Legendary skins ever.
Flora Fatalis Fiddlesticks
Flora Fatalis Fiddle is what happens when a skin actually plays into the champion’s core horror fantasy and enhances it, adding something that wasn’t there before. Fiddlesticks is an entity that steals from its victims, like their voices, looks, and their essence, and adds them to itself. Flora Fatalis leans into that, gaining a more feminine body that has been corrupted by poisonous plants.
It’s unsettling and haunting, just like a proper Fiddlesticks skin should be. Let’s hope that any future Flora Fatalis skins are of the quality that Fiddlesticks and Lissandra have received.
Honorable mention: Arcane Councilor Mel
This skin brings Mel’s Arcane essence through clearly and fits her much more than whatever’s her default evening gown and battlemage attire hybrid. It’s very clean, and it also works because it isn’t trying to force Mel into whatever the patch theme-skinline-of-the-month is.
It’s hard to argue that League of Legends has seen better seasons in terms of skin quality. But the best skins are still really good, the artists working on splash arts are still incredible, and every year had its stinkers. Sadly, the battle pass skin quality and monetization techniques still remain questionable. Hopefully, we get more of the former in 2026. And give us Pingu Garen permanently!
