The FGC was shocked and saddened by a seemingly sudden update from Riot Games: 2XKO will essentially shut down by the end of 2026. It was one of those moments for me where I had to hold back from saying, “I told you so.”
See, I’ve been predicting 2XKO’s demise for a while now, not feeling too confident due to Riot’s massive expectations for a niche fighting title. It seemed like Riot felt 2XKO would defy expectations and expand to mainstream esports status, and make some money on its expensive skins.
It’s safe to say that this announcement didn’t shock me at all. But that doesn’t make it any less sad. 2XKO hasn’t been around too long, but a very passionate community has formed around its esports scene. The shutdown is nothing to celebrate at all.
In fact, it simply highlights how Riot fumbled a fighting game that initially had a lot of promise. I spoke with commentator and content creator Corey “Nitten” Salva and co-streamer and grassroots esports organizer Hieu “hieule8” Van Le about 2XKO’s sad ending and Riot’s wrongdoings.
The sudden death of a promising fighter
On August 20th, Riot announced that active development was coming to an end come December 2026. While “a lot of you” played the game, it just wasn’t enough to make the game sustainable for Riot.
Riot went on to explain that they would be dumping a bunch of content, improvements, and champions into the game. All champions will be unlocked. All cosmetics can be purchased in a bundle. However, most in the FGC were not pleased. Far from it.
In the announcement, Riot essentially admitted that the game wasn’t making enough money or attracting enough players to make it worth their while, even after introducing major changes and a reliable netcode. The letter stated: “Over time, it became clear it would be impossible for us to continue actively developing the game as we are today.
But here’s the thing: 2XKO wasn’t a bad game. That’s what has made the shutdown harder. The netcode was great, the tag team gameplay filled a niche in the FGC, and the matches felt polished and exciting. And watching it at Evo, I felt it was extremely fun to watch, with tons of storylines and rivalries.
There have been some complaints, of course. The small starting roster being one. But the community largely feels Riot’s expectations were far too high, leading to its demise. Said Ludwig Ahgren: “Bro, Riot is inane. It feels like Mark Marrell has the company in a chokehold, where if their game doesn’t make $1 billion dollars instantly, he shuts it down. No community building, no thought of making a beautiful game, just pure profit or die.”
Nitten and hieule8 both expressed a similar viewpoint: Riot’s expectations were far too high, and it destroyed the 2XKO esports scene.
2XKO would never reach the success Riot needed and wanted
Early on, back when Riot laid off half the 2XKO dev team, I continued to mention the focus on skins. Riot made the game free, hoping that the FGC would buy their overpriced cosmetics instead. However, the FGC doesn’t give a crap about skins. That plan backfired. To me, it showed an ignorance surrounding the FGC as well as unrealistic goals.
Street Fighter 6 has paid DLC fighters, sure, but does not rely on skin sales. No big fighting game does.
Riot worded it a bit more wholesome in its farewell message: “On the business side, we hoped that by making the game free, we could make the genre more accessible and discoverable to new players, and that they could fall in love with fighting games in the same way we did.”
However, we all remember the skin prices. There was an Arcane skin bundle priced at $100. Riot’s other games, like League of Legends, rely heavily on skin sales. It’s obvious they hoped the same would happen with 2XKO; that the game would become popular with the general gaming community due to familiar Arcane characters, and they’d buy a crapton of skins. This clearly never happened.
But speaking with Nitten and hieule8, Riot’s mishandling of the game goes well beyond a horrible marketing plan.
“After 1.0, when they laid off half the staff, it became clear to the community that whatever goals they had in mind, whatever targets they had for money on skins and player rate, were way too high,” said Nitten. “Slowly losing players just happens. The player count drops and plateaus at some point. So this was a big signal: it was weird they were doing all this so quickly. It was like a month or two after.
“The numbers had to be so far off.”
Did 2XKO have enough players?
Back when I debated my colleague about 2XKO not making it past 2027, we discussed the number of competitors in big FGC tournaments. Evo Japan 2026 had 365 entrants, which was a big drop from its premier major at Frosty Faustings earlier this year: 4,431 registrants. At Evo Las Vegas there were 1,080 entrants and CEO had 410.
These numbers are pretty solid for a new fighting game. But that’s the thing: the FGC is not big. The numbers are nowhere near VALORANT or League of Legends numbers.
Nitten believed that Riot hoped 2XKO would reach Street Fighter 6 numbers, but it lacked the established IP and gameplay to do so. While 2XKO may have relied on the Arcane series to help players feel attached to the new title, hieule8 noted that Arcane hype faded fast when the seasons ended.
On top of that, tag team games are quite niche, and the FGC has plenty of games to choose from right now. This has spread the player base around.
However, even if 2XKO had grown to be as popular as Street Fighter 6, it wouldn’t have likely met whatever magic number Riot had in its mind. No amount of players would really be enough, since Riot had sunk so much money into the game.
Riot seemed to give up on 2XKO quite early on, but didn’t say so
For Nitten, hieule8, and others who were very invested in the 2XKO scene, it was easy to notice strange behavior from Riot early on. And to be clear, this doesn’t include the 2XKO dev team itself.
Nitten pointed out that many of the 2XKO devs and staff were well-known in the FGC, having previously competed at a high level or gotten involved in other ways. They seemed to have a good grasp on how the FGC works and were passionate about the game. But this didn’t translate to Riot caring as a whole.
hieule8 said he often worked with Community Lead Julian “JulezJP” Johnson, calling him an “amazing person.” They would often communicate over email (hieule8 helps coordinate local watch parties and events for Riot through the Nevada Esports Education League), but hieule8 noticed his communication worsened in 2026.
“I didn’t hear much back,” he said, wondering what JulezJP could have become busy with. “But the reason he was quiet is because Riot was quiet. Riot gave no words back to him, so it was harder for him to tell me anything. They weren’t telling him anything.”
It seemed like Riot was pulling back after initially investing so heavily in 2XKO. hieule8 pointed out that Riot did things differently from other fighting game developers. Riot put a lot of money into the game early on, hiring tons of developers and paying for ambassadors to run the demo booths at events like Evo. Other niche titles often start slowly and then build up their team as the game starts to grow.
“The money it took to produce 2XKO compared to other games, I don’t think they saw the money back,” hieule8 said. “The community didn’t grow into those numbers. I don’t think the registration numbers met what they expected.
“VALORANT was totally different. When the beta came out, they had content creators getting it for free. That’s all they did. They didn’t hire a big staff. It wasn’t till after two years that they started hiring animators, designers… With 2XKO, they hired more people to push the game out, then hoped it would get bigger. That doesn’t work that way.”
While the game itself had really no issues – and the esports community was passionate and thriving – Riot’s continued mishandling made all of this moot. According to hieule8, Riot was not putting in effort where it mattered. As a co-streamer, he noticed there was a lack of community or support for co-streamers, which Riot did for VALORANT and League of Legends.
He then noticed Riot wasn’t taking advantage of the space it had at Evo, not planning any ways to showcase 2XKO beyond the demos. They also brought on ambassadors who weren’t from the FGC, which further disconnected players from 2XKO.
Riot was not invested. 2XKO was not a money maker like League of Legends and VALORANT. In the end, it was just another fighting game. And not even a popular one. However, Riot wasn’t ready to admit this to the FGC, letting the game limp on with less and less support.
Meanwhile, Riot execs continued sounding positive online.
Nitten recalled: “There was a quote from Mark in a subreddit answering: How much money does it have to make so Riot doesn’t have to shut it down Week 1? He said something like, ‘There’s nothing to worry about.’ He didn’t have to say that. He went out of his way to say it.
“So I felt they believed in the project and didn’t care if it made the most money. Turns out that was very much not the case. This falls entirely on the execs, unless prove wrong. And I’m open to being proven wrong.”
No ragrets
The 2XKO esports community has been feverishly passionate about the game despite concerns about Riot’s behavior behind the scenes. For Nitten, he was already invested in Riot’s esports scenes, and a tag team fighter was right up his alley. He grinded Street Fighter 6 to get to Master rank, then turned his attention to 2XKO.
For 2XKO, he spread news and leaks, streamed the game, made YouTube videos, and started commentating at tournaments. He was able to commentate at CEO, right before the sad announcement. Even after the announcement, Nitten told me he was heading to another tournament in Canada.
“It’s been bittersweet,” he said.
The news definitely sent a lot of fighting game pros, staff, and fans into a spiral. I mean, Nitten has a 2XKO tattoo on his hand. This was big news.
“When I got the tattoo, it was getting close to launch time,” Nitten told me. “I had gone to multiple EVOs mostly to check out the games. I started meeting poeple through Discord, and I’m part of the core gaming group to this day. I’ve dabbled in competing before and dabbled in streaming a little bit.
“But it felt like I had put more effort into spreading positivity around the game, and it was perceived pretty well. It’s not about what I got out of it. But it was nice to be surrounded by people who all like the same thing as me.”
That’s not surprising to hear from a member of the FGC, where authenticity and grassroots community is key. Nitten said he’s already gotten meme-d for his tattoo, but he has no regrets. 2XKO has been full of fond memories for him. And it may not be over just yet.
The news was met with a lot of anger at Riot. But nobody is ready to let go of 2XKO just yet.
Nitten said the esports scene will downsize without support from Riot. This will remove a lot of official tournaments. However, he can’t see it going away completely.
“Next year, if you see it at Evo, it’ll be a side tournament with a fraction of the players. But that’s totally fine,” Nitten said. “People only have so much attention span. But there will be a core group of players who will stick with it for a long time.”
hieule8 agreed. Without the support and money from Riot, there won’t be any big tournaments at all. At first, there may not be any. But he believes fans will keep 2XKO alive in some way as time goes on.
The devs behind the game are also still passionate. Those who truly care about 2XKO and the FGC won’t let the game die. I mean, have you seen Super Smash Bros. Melee? That game has been around for decades despite no updates and Nintendo actively trying to kill off its esports scene. You won’t make any money playing, but you’ll find raw passion and dedicated fans at every tournament.
So, don’t cry because it’s over. Be happy it happened. And if you truly care about 2XKO, keep playing.
