Riot Games Co-Founder Says 2XKO Needed Hundreds of Thousands, if Not Millions, of Monthly Active Players to Survive

Riot Games co-founder, co-chairman and chief product officer Marc Merrill said on The Lemonade Stand podcast that 2XKO would have needed monthly active player numbers in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to justify its cost structure. He said Street Fighter 6's 2023 release disrupted their plans and that a lack of internal alignment caused managerial fracturing, so Riot issued full refunds and canceled further content updates after player numbers fell short of supporting the live-service design. Riot had already announced it would end active development after December 2026 while keeping online play supported.