Riot lays off 2XKO developers less than three weeks after release: 'Overall momentum hasn't reached the level needed to support a team of this size'

Just a few weeks after the official launch of its 2v2 fighting game 2XKO, Riot Games is reducing the size of its development team by nearly half and laying off employees.

"As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO," executive producer Tom Cannon wrote in today's announcement. "The game has resonated with a passionate core audience, but overall momentum hasn't reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.

"With a smaller, focused team, we're going to dig in and make key improvements to the game, including some of the things we've already heard you asking for. We'll share some of our plans soon."

Riot told PC Gamer that about 80 roles are being eliminated, a little less than half the total 2XKO dev team, but an actual total isn't known at this point as developers impacted by the cuts will have the opportunity to apply for other jobs at the company. Riot also said its plans for 2XKO's 2026 Competitive Series remain unchanged.

The cuts to the 2XKO team would seem to be the latest move in a "refocusing" process that began two years ago when Riot closed its Riot Forge program and laid off 530 employees. CEO Dylan Jadeja said at the time that Riot had made "a number of big bets" since 2019 that weren't paying off adequately, and so it was going to shift its attention to "fewer, high-impact projects."

More layoffs followed in October 2024, although Riot co-founder Marc Merrill said at the time that the League of Legends development team "will eventually be even larger than it is today as we develop the next phase of League." Hints about that dropped at the end of 2025, when League executive producer Paul "Pabro" Bellezza and head of studio Andrei "Meddler" van Roon posted a video acknowledging that the studio has "been working on some bigger updates to League."

2XKO had been in development for close to a decade prior to its full release: It was first announced in 2019 but rumors of its existence went as far back as Riot's acquisition of Radiant Entertainment in 2016.

Following a short closed beta test, it launched into early access in October 2025, and then hit 1.0 on January 20, just 20 days ago. 2XKO isn't on Steam so we don't have access to player numbers, but cutting the team in half less than three weeks after launch doesn't point to good things. Riot said more information will be shared soon.