Riot’s 2XKO Reportedly Locks Full Launch for January 20, 2026 on PC and Consoles
Riot’s long in development fighting game 2XKO is reportedly set for a full launch on PC and consoles on January 20, 2026, following its October 2025 early access debut on PC. The release date surfaced via an official announcement trailer uploaded by Riot on YouTube that was quickly switched to private, which strongly suggests this is a premature publication rather than a speculative rumor.
This is a major milestone for a project that has taken a long road to get here. The game’s roots trace back to 2016, when Riot acquired Radiant Entertainment, the studio behind Rising Thunder and Stonehearth. Rising Thunder itself was cancelled after the acquisition, but the Cannon brothers shifted into building a new fighting game under Riot, leveraging their deep competitive fighting game DNA. Their resume includes founding the Evolution Championship Series and developing GGPO, the rollback netcode middleware that has become a baseline expectation for modern online fighters.
The earliest confirmation that Riot was building a fighting game arrived in August 2019. A larger shift happened in August 2022 when Riot revealed the project would be free to play. The 2XKO name and clearer product direction landed in February 2024, when Riot framed it as a 2v2 tag format fighter using champions from the League of Legends universe.
At a systems level, 2XKO is built around a duo structure where 1 champion plays the Point role while the other acts as Assist, enabling active tagging and assist calls that can extend combos, create pressure, and open up mixups. The game is also making a deliberate accessibility bet. Instead of traditional quarter circle and dragon punch motions, champions use button combinations, lowering execution barriers for new players while still leaving room for mastery through timing, team synergy, and matchup knowledge.
Customization and team identity are expected to be a key differentiator through the Fuse system, a build style layer that functions like a team focused modifier set. Fuses can grant effects such as back to back assist calling, increased damage when holding a health advantage, or enabling dual ultimates, effectively pushing 2XKO toward a more expressive duo crafting meta that rewards experimentation as the roster grows.
If the January 20, 2026 date holds, it positions 2XKO to enter the market with a clear multi platform push, a modernized control philosophy, and a competitive forward team structure designed for both casual onboarding and long term ranked depth. The only remaining question is how Riot plans to pace content, competitive support, and seasonal incentives once the full release goes live, because that is where free to play fighters either become staples or fade from the spotlight.
Do you want 2XKO to lean harder into competitive depth for the FGC, or prioritize accessibility and fast onboarding even if it simplifies some advanced execution tech?
