- Primary Subject: 2XKO (Free-to-Play Tag Fighting Game)
- Key Update: Riot Games announced the premature conclusion of active development for 2XKO by December 2026 due to unsustainable player retention.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: September 2, 2026
- Quick Answer: Riot is ending active development on 2XKO because player retention remained flat and operational costs outpaced revenue, despite positive support from core fighting fans.
Riot is just another cancelled game away from me throwing an actual riot, because of the recent sunsetting of 2XKO’s development and the not-so-recent sunsetting of Legends of Runeterra.
This is coming from someone who’s put hours into both games to the point where I’ve ended up loving them more than Riot’s prize pig, League of Legends. It was upsetting the first time they killed off Legend of Runeterra, but with 2XKO’s premature shutdown so early in its development lifespan, it is now firmly cemented in my mind that Riot is just a corporate hack disguised as a game development company. And that’s unfortunate, considering they already have a lot of material to work with.
I want to preface this ramble by saying that none of the devs of Riot Games are at fault here. Sure, there can be some infuriating balance issues through all the games, but every game in Riot’s arsenal has been ambitious, interesting, and well-polished with the players in mind. 2XKO was a game that had a lot of things going for it. Admittedly, the game did have a high barrier of entry by way of being not only a fighting game but also a tag fighter, but the game itself was fun if you invested enough time and effort to learn the game.
What I’ve noticed between all of the games on Riot’s spin-off list is that most of them feel very divided between the development team and the corporate side of the industry. Developers get on dev vlogs with full transparency and a clear direction of where they want their games to go, while the corporate underbelly of every game features a horrendous monetization structure that drains your wallet.
The existence of a $100 skin bundle for 2XKO should be enough to sound alarm bells in your head, but the thing is, Riot has gotten away with this for years, and in my opinion, there hasn’t been enough backlash.
Valorant released at the peak of COVID hysteria way back in 2020, and I believe that the timing of the release is the entire reason why Riot hasn’t axed the game yet. The game was free to play during an era when gamers were stir-crazy and looking for the next big game, and Riot delivered it on a silver platter.
The game still maintains crazy numbers to this day, and rightfully so, because it's been fun, and the updates over its lifespan have shaken things up enough to keep it fresh. But I think the biggest signifier of success for Riot is the average player’s willingness to shell out $70 on digital items.
When Valorant came out, the first purchasable bundle of skins for the game sold like hotcakes. Players who were stuck in quarantine with nothing better to spend on were more than willing to shell out the $70 per skin bundle, and since then, everyone has sort of just accepted things to be this way.
With as much backlash as the 2XKO Arcane skins got on release, I think that fans have just gotten used to Riot overpricing digital cosmetics. You could defend this pricing scheme by saying that the game itself is free and the cosmetics are optional and do not add much to the game, but this paywall to additional content does not work with every game.
Another thing that should be mentioned is that Riot has been completely spoiled by their success with League of Legends. In what is probably the biggest online gaming phenomenon in recent years, League of Legends continues to bring in the player count and the viewer count, existing long enough to build a solid foundation of brand loyalty with players. Valve has continued to maintain the game for years from nothing, and now they have players who are willing to shell out thousands of dollars for in-game skins their favorite champions can wear. Heck, I know people who are genuinely hyped to shell out money for seasonal cosmetics.
I believe that the corporate side of Riot has completely forgotten that it took League of Legends years to reach the position they’re in now. It takes years of consistent support to build a game where your players are willing to support its longevity and continued development with their hard-earned cash, and they need to remind themselves of that. A viral game does not grow overnight, no matter how much cash you throw at it, and that’s especially true for fighting games.
The prizing could be a million dollars, and you could bring in dozens of people for a major, but without the effort to build a community with your players first, you will be bound to fail.
I wish 2XKO had the chance to grow its audience organically the way League of Legends did. Thankfully, the servers are still up so players can still enjoy the game and push it to its limits. Let’s just hope Riot takes notice.
Or not. In fact, I hope corporations stop sticking their thumbs in my pie. We all know the result of that.
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