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

The co-founder, co-chairman, and chief product officer of Riot Games, Marc Merrill, revealed the number of monthly active users 2XKO would have needed to justify its budget, sparking an animated debate within the fighting game community. Speaking on The Lemonade Stand, Merrill detailed what happened behind the scenes at Riot that led to 2XKO’s failure, providing a ballpark figure of monthly active users the game would have required. He stated that, considering its cost structure, 2XKO would have needed a player count “in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions” to rationalize its continued support.

Merrill also mentioned Street Fighter 6, noting that Capcom’s 2023 release threw off Riot's plans. He explained that while they had an awesome development team and made a beautiful game, the timing was poor. "I think if we came out, ideally when we should’ve, years before Street Fighter, I think we would have made a really significant impact on the community," Merrill said.

He further explained that Riot lacked internal “alignment” on the strategy for 2XKO, which caused “managerial fracturing.” Ultimately, insufficient player numbers led Riot to issue full refunds and cancel further content updates. "We’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves," he admitted. He concluded that while [2XKO] resonated with some players, it did not attract enough users to justify the live service approach the game was designed for.

For comparison, Street Fighter 6 boasts an average of anywhere between 16,000 and 20,000 monthly active users on Steam. The article notes that while Riot is known for League of Legends' massive player base, even they acknowledged the difficulty in reaching “millions” of monthly active users to sustain a fighting game like 2XKO.

Merrill’s comments sparked heated reactions from players who were stunned by the high required player count given how niche the genre is. Many questioned Riot's planning and timing, suggesting that the failure was due to poor strategy rather than lack of interest.