Riot Games will end active development of 2XKO in December 2026, but the fighting game is not shutting down with it. Riot says its servers will remain online after development ends, while offline play will continue to work. The company is also refunding money spent on the game on or before August 20 and unlocking all champions and bundling most cosmetic items for players.
The decision follows months of concern over whether 2XKO could retain enough players to support continued development. Riot says many people tried the game and a committed community still plays it, but not enough players stayed for the project to reach a sustainable path.
Riot says 2XKO did not retain enough players for long-term development
2XKO brought Riot’s League of Legends characters into a free-to-play tag fighting game built around two-character teams and the option for two players to fight together. The game expanded from PC to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in January 2026.
By February, Riot had already reduced the size of the development team. Executive producer Tom Cannon said at the time that 2XKO had connected with a passionate core audience, but its overall momentum had not reached the level needed to support a team of that size over the long term.
The latest announcement goes further. Riot now says the game’s trajectory has remained consistent enough that active development will end in December. That moves 2XKO toward maintenance rather than another attempt to sustain the same live-development model.
Servers stay online as Riot unlocks champions and issues refunds
For players who want to keep playing, the immediate change is not a server closure. Riot says servers will remain online after active development ends and offline play is unaffected. The company says it will give players advance notice if that changes later.
Riot is also changing how existing content is accessed. All champions are being unlocked, while most cosmetic items are being bundled for players. Content players already own will remain on their accounts. Avatar and player-profile items are due to become unlockable with Credits in patch 1.3.1 in September.
Riot says it will refund money spent on 2XKO on or before August 20, 2026. That makes the transition different from a conventional live-service shutdown: players are being refunded while the game itself remains playable.
Lux and Samira are still coming before the final December patch
Riot still plans to add content and feature improvements through the remainder of 2026. Lux and Samira are the two remaining champions named for that period, giving the game at least two more roster additions before active development ends.
The final bug-fix patch is planned for December. After that, Riot’s current plan is to keep the servers running for online play, with offline play continuing as well.
For now, the important distinction is that 2XKO is entering maintenance rather than disappearing. Riot has put an end date on active development, but it has not announced a server shutdown date.
Source: Riot Games, Riot Games’ February update and VGC.