Riot has announced that the 2XKO team, which just celebrated launching the new League of Legends-based 2v2 tag fighter out of early access less than a month ago on January 20, will lose 80 members of its development team in a round of layoffs. The news was confirmed in a blog post from the game’s executive producer, Tom Cannon, who cited that despite the game doing well with its “core audience,” the “overall momentum hasn’t reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term.”
While the statement itself doesn’t cite the exact number of developers who were laid off, a report from Game Developer adds that a Riot spokesperson confirmed that approximately 80, which rounds out to approximately half of the game’s initial development team, are losing their jobs.
“As we expanded from PC to console, we saw consistent trends in how players were engaging with 2XKO,” Cannon explained. “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.“
Cannon added that the plans for the upcoming 2026 Competitive Series remain “unchanged,” and that this decision is a “reshaping” of the team, “to give 2XKO a more sustainable path forward.” Cannon also noted that the decision is not a reflection on any individual member of the development team, and that Riot is doing what it can to help the impacted developers.
Cannon concluded, “I know this update will raise questions and concerns. That’s understandable. We’ll continue communicating about how things are progressing. In the journey so far we’ve been humbled and dazzled by the energy and passion you’ve brought to the 2XKO community. That energy matters, and it will help fuel us into this next chapter as we improve the game.“
“Thank you for playing 2XKO, for caring enough to ask hard questions, and for being part of this community.”
At the top of the year, 2XKO was one of Wccftech’s Most Anticipated Fighting Games of 2026. Before that, even in its early access state, it made our list for the Best Fighting Games of 2025. It’s a bold fighting game with a strong aesthetic that gives players a fresh introduction to the League of Legends franchise and its characters that have lasted for so long.
This is the latest layoff in the video game industry, after January was already riddled with layoffs from Meta, Ubisoft, and Amazon.
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