Riot Games to end active development of League of Legends fighting game 2XKO

Riot Games has announced it will conclude "active development" of 2XKO, its free-to-play fighting game set in the League of Legends universe, less than a year after the title's initial launch. The company says development will wind down by the end of 2026, explaining that player retention never reached a level sufficient to put the game on a sustainable path.

Despite ending active development, Riot says the game's servers will remain online beyond 2026. The company is also unlocking every playable character and refunding money players have spent on the game.

2XKO entered early access on PC in October 2025 and later expanded to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in January 2026. Shortly after the console launch, Riot had already announced staff cuts on the project, citing insufficient overall momentum to justify a team of that size long term.

No lasting turnaround

In its announcement, Riot said it evaluated the game's performance throughout the year. While there were bright spots, including new character releases and competitive events, the company says none of it produced a meaningful or sustained shift in the game's trajectory.

Riot noted it would have kept developing 2XKO had it seen a viable path forward, but the game costs substantially more to operate than it generates in revenue, and player engagement stayed largely flat even after major updates.

2XKO joins a growing list of live-service game projects that have failed to find their footing. This week, Sony was reported to be removing live-service elements from its in-development multiplayer Horizon title. Highguard shut down permanently less than two months after launch, and Remedy earlier this year announced a final major update for its live-service shooter FBC: Firebreak. Even Fortnite has faced setbacks, with developer Epic Games cutting jobs in March following a decline in player engagement.