Is Overwolf safe?

Overwolf is a platform for in-game apps: a client that runs next to your game and a store of apps that run inside it, for League of Legends and many other games. App makers build on it because it handles the overlay, the updates and the money; Overwolf runs the ads inside free apps and shares the revenue. M.O.B.A. Network, Porofessor's maker, says Overwolf “remains M.O.B.A.'s ad monetization and tech partner for all in-game apps” even now that Porofessor has a build without the client.

Installing an Overwolf app installs the Overwolf client too, with its own entry in Windows' installed apps, its own updater and, by default, a start with Windows. Overwolf says “Apps published on Overwolf have been manually tested for quality, malware and performance”, and its Trustpilot page shows 4.5 out of 5 from 684 reviews. That is the fair starting point: a real company, a real store, and an ad business model.

Sources: overwolf.com; M.O.B.A. Network press release, Dec 5, 2025; Overwolf: Our commitment; Trustpilot: Overwolf

No, by everything we could find. The threads that rank for “is overwolf spyware” and “is overwolf a virus” are Blizzard and ARK forum posts, a few GitHub gists and Overwolf's own support pages, and none of them documents a case of malware or data theft. What they do document is a mood: “invasive, the ads are atrocious”, says one Blizzard reply; the ARK thread is a “friendly reminder” to avoid it. Some players report that an antivirus flagged the installer as a potentially unwanted program; a PUP flag means bundled software and ads, which Overwolf has, not a virus, and the reports are forum posts, not a lab finding.

What the facts say: the installer comes from overwolf.com, the company publishes a privacy policy that says what an ad-funded platform collects, and Riot, which blocks and audits a great deal of software around its games, has never named Overwolf in a rules page or a notice. If you want a stricter standard than that, the honest answer is that nobody outside Overwolf has published an audit, in either direction.

Sources: Blizzard forums: Overwolf safe?; ARK forum: “Your friendly reminder about Overwolf”; Overwolf support; overwolf.com; Riot Support: Game Memory Access Removed for Third Party Apps (Sep 29, 2026)

Because something you installed runs on it. For League players the usual suspects are Mobalytics, whose desktop app only runs on Overwolf, and the original build of Porofessor; outside League, CurseForge and apps for World of Warcraft, Minecraft and dozens of other games. Overwolf then stays after you uninstall the app that brought it, because it is a program of its own. Which League apps bring it and which don't is the table on League apps without Overwolf.

Sources: Mobalytics on the Overwolf store; Porofessor on the Overwolf store; CurseForge app

Riot's rules don't talk about platforms. They talk about what an app does. The support page on third-party applications lists what Riot treats as an unfair advantage:

• “Exposing information that's intentionally obfuscated”
• “Taking actions on your behalf (botting or scripting)”
• “Drawing conclusions for you during gameplay”
• “Altering your field of intelligence (zoomhacks or global ult alerts)”

The same page says “we can't provide a full list of which ones are safe to use” and that “If a third party application is approved and built using the official Riot API, players should rarely have an issue.” Riot's Vanguard FAQ for developers adds that “Overlays and internal tools using the API, game client, and in-game APIs should continue to function.”, that “External tools reading memory will no longer work”, and that “There is absolutely no allow list for Vanguard.” And the notice of September 29, 2026, which since October 6 blocks game memory access “by default for all unknown third-party applications”, names no platform either.

So the question is never “is Overwolf allowed” but “does this app on Overwolf read memory or act for me”. Mobalytics and Porofessor, the two League apps most tied to Overwolf, have published no statement on the October notice that we found as of October 30, 2026; Porofessor says it is approved by Riot, which is the maker's claim and not Riot's. What Riot's rules mean for each app is on what Riot's rules say, app by app, and for Porofessor on Porofessor and Riot's rules.

Sources: Riot Support: Third-Party Applications (Feb 10, 2025); Riot: Vanguard FAQ for developers; Riot Support: Game Memory Access Removed for Third Party Apps (Sep 29, 2026); @PorofessorGG on X, Aug 2022

The only published numbers for League apps on Overwolf come from iTero, a rival app, in March 2026: about 1,000 MB of memory for Porofessor during a game with Overwolf, about 1,400 MB and often close to 2,000 MB for Mobalytics. That is a competitor's test on its own PC, not a standard, and it measures the app plus the client together. Overwolf itself publishes no figure.

You can measure your own setup in a minute: start a game with your app running, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc for Task Manager, sort by Memory and add up the Overwolf and app processes. For scale, LazyElo, which runs without Overwolf or a browser engine: We measured 428 MB of RAM idle in the lobby and 511 MB during a game with the overlay on at 0.0% CPU. An FPS test with and without LazyElo is still in progress, so we make no FPS claim yet. That number is ours, on one PC, on version 0.13.1; the full measurement with CPU is further down this page.

Source: iTero (a rival app), Mar 31, 2026

Porofessor (the standalone build since December 5, 2025), Blitz, OP.GG Desktop and the U.GG app, all on Electron with ads in their free versions; Hexgate, Warden and LazyElo as native apps. Mobalytics' desktop app is the one that still needs it. The engine, ads, price and platform of each are in one table on League apps without Overwolf; what a companion app does in the first place is on League of Legends companion app.

Sources: M.O.B.A. Network press release, Dec 5, 2025; Hexgate (a rival app), Oct 21, 2026; Warden by Khaos Studio (a rival app): best League companion apps, Aug 2026; Mobalytics on the Overwolf store

“For known and currently approved tools, we will have an extended grace period until April 2027, after which time, they will need to have switched to the official APIs”

Riot's words, September 29, 2026. Tools Riot knows have until April 2027 to use only the official APIs; unknown tools lost game memory access on October 6. Riot adds that the change “This change does not result in bans by itself”. Which apps on Overwolf read game memory, none of their makers say in our sources, so what changes for League apps by April 2027 keeps a tracker of who has said what.

Source: Riot Support: Game Memory Access Removed for Third Party Apps (Sep 29, 2026)