You’ve heard of League of Legends, now get ready for the rising YouTube sensation that is League of Pigs. How do I know about this, you ask? Well because of a Macbeth Shakespeare Society rehearsal. Still not making any sense? Yup, same here to be honest. Because of a moment of true cast bonding, the cast of Macbeth on a little rehearsal break on a random Tuesday night last November decided to watch an episode of League of Pigs.
League of Pigs first premiered on YouTube in December 2020 and is seemingly reliant on Youtube monetisation, Patreon subscription service and merchandise to fund the events. Boasting over 92,000 subscribers and 289,000 views, it has developed a small, but growing cult following on Reddit and other social media. The show has also featured on the Sidemen reacts.
League of Pigs consist of five pigs racing against each other over an obstacle course in, according to the YouTube channel, “the heart of England”, including sharp turns and bridges. The racecourse has been adapted slightly since the first race was run in early 2021. But how do you get pigs to race each other, you may ask? The porcine Porsches are start in a pen at the starting line and get released, a trayful of goodies awaits them the other end of the track, from there the smell of these treats causes the pigs to race through the obstacle course, get over the line and get a mouthful of food. This is not a fool-proof method, and pigs have been known to deviate off course into the woods, but this often adds to the entertainment of watching the videos.
The race is international, with the pigs, all of a Kunekune breed, representing the United States (Piggy Smalls), Mexico (Pepper Sanchez), Russia (Bear Trotsky), Japan (Hoshi Oinku) and the United Kingdom (Ginger Hamilton). However we only have the account’s claims to back up that they are indeed international pigs.
Speaking of history, it is difficult to track down information on how this race was founded, which does raise eyebrows. The commentator is unnamed, are they the owner of the pigs or the founder/s of the account? This remains unclear. The merchandise website does have a standard email generator, which I used to enquire about the organisation, but attempts to contact the organisation were met with enthusiasm for this article but were not forthcoming on any information.
This does give shady impressions, it appears that the pigs are well treated, but there appear to be no independent sources to verify this. Very likely, all this is because League of Pigs is not big enough that the organisers feel like it is worth shouting about, but with Sidemen promotion, a successful merchandise store and a growing list of patrons on Patreon, I disagree.
Ultimately, League of Pigs is great viewing, especially for a group of people like the University of York Shakespeare Society where the line between treating it like a meme and taking it extremely seriously is a thin one. Seven seasons of races in just three years is also mightily impressive, but I can’t help but think there is more to this YouTube account than meets the eye.