Riot ending 2XKO development in December, refunding purchases and unlocking all content

Riot Games announced on August 20 that active development on 2XKO — its free-to-play League of Legends fighting game — will end in December 2026, less than a year after the game's full 1.0 launch in January. The studio cited an inability to retain enough players to reach sustainability, calling the situation a "clear, consistent picture" despite an engaged core community.

The final content patch drops in October, followed by a final bug fix patch in December. Two new champions, Lux and Samira, are still coming as planned, and all champions will be unlocked for free once development wraps. All in-game purchases made on or before August 20 will be refunded by November. KO Points purchases are disabled immediately. A bundle containing nearly all cosmetic content will be available for $39.99 / £33.99 / €39.99. Ranked lobbies are being disabled in favor of a single skill-based casual matchmaking pool, while private lobbies remain untouched. Servers stay online beyond 2026, and offline play is unaffected — though Riot noted it will give advance notice if that changes. The 2XKO Competitive Series runs through its final event in November, with Riot continuing to fund prizing for Major and Challenger events through the end of the year.

2XKO started life as Project L around 2017, was officially revealed in 2019, and spent years in development before an early access PC launch in September 2025 and a full console and PC release on January 20, 2026. The game launched to generally positive reviews, but the warning signs came fast: just three weeks after launch, Riot cut roughly half the development team — around 80 people — citing audience retention problems. The studio said it was still "fully committed" at the time, but six months later the plug is pulled entirely. Riot's blog post says it explored options including further headcount reductions and business model changes before concluding that sunsetting active development was the only viable path. The game's struggles likely weren't helped by competing tag-team fighters launching in 2026, including Invincible VS and Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, which target overlapping audiences. 2XKO also joins MultiVersus as a high-profile free-to-play fighting game that couldn't sustain itself — a troubling pattern for the genre's live-service ambitions.

Riot has not announced additional layoffs tied to this decision. The fighting game community has taken the news hard, given 2XKO's genuine ambition and the years of work poured into it. Riot says it's still figuring out what more it can do for players, tournament organizers, and content creators who supported the game, and community-run offline and online events can continue under Riot's community competition guidelines after 2026.