Riot Games set player count expectations for its fighting game 2XKO that were "in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions," a target that ultimately proved unattainable and contributed to the game's demise. This ambitious requirement, coupled with the release of strong competitors, doomed the project from its inception.
Speaking on the Lemonade Stand podcast, a Riot co-founder explained that the studio had a critical window to support the fighting game community, but the emergence of titles like Street Fighter 6, which launched eight years after development on 2XKO began, impacted its prospects. Despite a talented development team creating what was described as a "beautiful game," it failed to resonate with a sufficient player base to justify the live-service model it was designed for.
Analyzing Player Count Benchmarks
The figure of "high hundreds of thousands, if not millions" of monthly active users (MAU) required for 2XKO's live-service model raises questions, particularly when contrasted with the performance of other fighting games. MAU represents unique users who log in at least once a month, a significantly higher number than concurrent players. For context, Street Fighter 6, a highly successful title, recorded a peak of around 30,000 concurrent players on PC at one point. Even with generous assumptions about daily playtime and platform distribution, it is estimated that Street Fighter 6's total daily active player count would barely exceed 500,000 MAU, falling short of Riot's stated threshold.
Other supported fighting games also operate with much smaller active player bases. Guilty Gear: Strive, which continues to receive new content, has a 24-hour concurrent peak of approximately 1,580 players. These comparisons suggest that Riot's player count expectations for 2XKO were exceptionally high, possibly reflecting overconfidence stemming from success in less niche genres or a lack of thorough market research.
Development and Layoffs
The end of 2XKO's development was preceded by layoffs within the development team, which the co-founder attributed to the game's overall momentum not reaching the necessary level to support its size. The decision to shift the game to a "box game" format, rather than a continued live service, further underscores the failure to meet player engagement targets. These outcomes prompt difficult questions about Riot's strategic approach to new genres and the potential impact of ambitious, perhaps unrealistic, expectations on developer livelihoods.