Riot Games, developer behind League of Legends, has announced that the title’s fighting game spin-off, 2XKO, will end active development in December 2026. This news was announced via a post on Riot’s website, with the company stating:
While a lot of you jumped in to try the game and there’s an incredible community that plays every day, we haven’t seen enough players stick with the game to get to a path toward sustainability.
This news is sure to upset many fans, given the positive momentum the title seemed to pick up since its launch on October 7, 2025, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. Earlier this summer, the game appeared at EVO 2026, appearing on the main stage for its top 8 on the final day. EVO bases the games that appear there on player registration; this would place it as one of the more popular games at the event. It’s appearence even ended with a thrilling bracket reset by Hikari and team SonicFox and Inzem, eventually winning the entire competition.
2XKO will receive a final update in October, with the team hoping to finish bug-fixing patches in December. There are additional improvements and feature improvements planned to be added before that, with two additional champions (Lux and Samira) still planned to be released as well. Following December, servers for the game will be online, with all purchases made through the in-game store before August 20th being refunded.
The team stated:
We evaluated the game’s overall performance—not just revenue, but retention, new players, and engagement—through 2026. We saw positive player reactions through the releases of Akali, Senna, Thresh, The Climb (PVE), and some amazing competitive events throughout the year. Even in these highlight moments, however, we saw no meaningful, sustained change in 2XKO’s trajectory; only a fraction of what it would take to trend toward sustainability. Over time it became clear it would be impossible for us to continue actively developing the game as we are today.
In recent months, the team has continued to take bold swings while fully aware of 2XKO’s challenges—but to attempt another year hoping for a way forward would have been an irresponsible choice for players and the dev team. To be super clear: we would have continued active development if we saw any viable future, but 2XKO costs us substantially more to operate than it brings in, and engagement has stayed relatively flat despite our larger updates.
With patch 1.3.1, Riot will be releasing a bundle featuring nearly all cosmetic content for 2XKO. This patch will release on September 8, with the bundle costing $39.99 / £33.99 / €39.99. Riot has also confirmed that the 2XKO Competitive Series will remain unchanged through 2026, which includes all major and challenger events. The final Competitive Series will be held in November.
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