Riot Games Cuts 80 Jobs from 2XKO Team Over Weak Player Engagement
Riot Games is laying off about 80 people from its 2XKO team. This is nearly half of the game’s global developers. The free-to-play fighting game isn’t getting enough players to keep such a big team going long-term.
Tom Cannon, the executive producer, explained this in a blog post. He said the game has a loyal group of fans. But overall, player interest hasn’t grown enough. This showed up when the game moved from PC to consoles.
Riot Games has announced layoffs for the 2XKO team
🔹"Overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term"
🔹Trying to have a more sustainable team size
🔹Plans for 2026 Competitive Series are unchanged
🔹Focus will continue to be on… pic.twitter.com/nBdgxAuwtn
— Hunter (@HUN2R) February 9, 2026
A Riot spokesperson told Game Developer that almost half the team is affected.
Cannon stressed this is about making the team smaller and smarter, not ending the game. “This isn’t a judgment on individual employees or a signal that the journey is over,” he wrote. “We’re reshaping the team to give 2XKO a more sustainable path forward.” It’s a change in how they work.
Riot is helping those laid off. They get at least six months’ notice and severance pay. The company will also try to find them other jobs inside Riot.
2XKO came out in early access on PC in October 2025. It hit consoles on January 20, 2026. The project started in 2019 as “Project L.” It was meant to be a fighting game based on League of Legends characters. Riot wanted it to compete with hits like Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Street Fighter.
Public reactions on (X) Twitter to this news reveal disappointment, criticism, and a sense of inevitability.
It was questioned by one user why layoffs were necessary at Riot Games, with the argument that employees could have been reassigned to stable and ongoing projects like Valorant or League of Legends, showing frustration with management decisions.
Why do layoffs when they could just get shuffled into other projects? It's not like Riot, Valorant, or League are going anywhere 🤔
— Gemini Jack (@GeminiJack11) February 9, 2026
Another user claimed the outcome was predictable, suggesting that a free-to-play fighting game failed because it did not generate the expected revenue.
I knew it, a F2P fighting game would not generate the money they expected
— Lucky_-1y (@_Luckyjust1y) February 9, 2026
A third user expressed personal disappointment, saying they were initially excited but felt the game lacked the features which make it original, describing it as a poor clone of Marvel vs. Capcom. This user concluded that the game’s failure was not surprising.
Was very hyped for this game…. except they made it a MVC clone.
The most unoriginal, boring, 1 sided take on a fighting game.
Not surprised, to see it failing.
— Paul Hypeman (@PaulyHype) February 9, 2026
Player trends during the console launch weren’t strong enough. That’s why Riot is slimming down the team now. This news shows tough times in gaming. Many companies are cutting staff when games don’t hit big player numbers fast. 2XKO still has fans, and Riot plans to keep improving it with a leaner group.
