Through an announcement on August 20, Riot Games confirmed that it’s pulling the plug on the ongoing development of 2XKO, its League of Legends-inspired tag fighter. The game will see its final update in December 2026, barely a year past the game’s console debut.
Why is Riot Shutting Down 2XKO Development?
As per the studio’s announcement, Riot has spent the recent months tracking the game’s overall revenue, retention, new players, and engagement. Despite well-received drops like Akali, Senna, Thresh, and the PvE-focused Climb mode, none of it added up to the kind of lasting momentum needed to put 2XKO on solid financial footing.
“We saw no meaningful, sustained change in 2XKO’s trajectory; only a fraction of what it would take to trend toward sustainability,” Riot Games said in a statement. “Over time it became clear it would be impossible for us to continue actively developing the game as we are today.”
Prior to this, 2XKO saw roughly half of its development staff being cut back in February, with Riot pointing to the same underlying issue that the team was simply too large for the audience the game had managed to hold onto.
Before settling on a full development shutdown, Riot says it looked at other paths, including trimming the team further, spacing out patches more, or overhauling how the game made money. In the end, wrapping up content already in the pipeline won.
Can You Still Play 2XKO?
Fortunately, 2XKO isn’t shutting down entirely. Servers are staying up for the time being, and the game will remain playable both online and offline across PC and consoles. However, Riot won’t be pushing new content updates past October.
Two upcoming characters, Lux and Samira, have already been teased and are still on track to release before the cutoff. Following that, an optional closing bug-fix patch is planned for December 2026.
Notably, anyone who has spent money in the game on or before August 20 is getting refunded, with most PC transactions expected to process within roughly two weeks.
On the competitive side, the 2XKO Competitive Series will run through its scheduled finale in November, and Riot says prize pool funding will continue through that point.
