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Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill said 2XKO would have needed “the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions” of monthly active users (MAU) for its live-service model to make sense at the game’s cost structure. That is Merrill’s approximate estimate—not a published Riot target, an audited player count, or a precise break-even calculation. Riot’s own shutdown announcement cited a wider problem: costs substantially exceeded revenue, while engagement stayed relatively flat despite larger updates.
What player count did Merrill say 2XKO needed?
In comments from The Lemonade Stand podcast reported by PC Gamer, Merrill said: “At their cost structure, it would’ve been in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions [of monthly users to keep it live service].” PC Gamer says the podcast annotation identifies the measure as monthly active users, or MAU. PC Gamer’s report and Insider Gaming’s account attribute the estimate to Merrill.
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The phrase gives a broad scale, not a single threshold. It does not establish how many people actually played 2XKO in a month, how many paid, or what exact combination of revenue and engagement would have made the game sustainable.
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Riot’s August 20, 2026 announcement said 2XKO cost substantially more to operate than it brought in. The company had tracked revenue, retention, new players, and engagement through 2026. It saw positive moments around new characters, a PvE mode, and competitive events, but said those moments did not produce a sustained shift in the game’s trajectory. Engagement remained relatively flat despite larger updates. Riot’s announcement describes the company’s stated rationale.
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Free-to-play required a large audience
Riot said it chose free-to-play to make the fighting game more accessible and discoverable, and hoped to build trust with core players while growing the audience as content and features arrived. The company also recognized that this model required a minimum player base to support its ambitions. Some parts of the fighting-game community adopted 2XKO, Riot said, but not at the scale needed. Riot’s explanation of its business model puts Merrill’s estimate in that context.
MAU is not the same as a player count at one moment
Monthly active users count people active over a month; a concurrent-player figure counts people playing at the same time, and sales count copies sold. These figures answer different questions. The available reporting does not establish a verified public MAU figure for 2XKO or disclose Riot’s exact operating costs, revenue, or break-even model.
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What does Street Fighter 6’s success show—and not show?
Merrill said Street Fighter 6 arrived about eight years after work on 2XKO began, closing what he felt had been a window for Riot to make an impact. That is his retrospective view of the timing, not evidence that an earlier 2XKO release would have reached the player base he described. Insider Gaming reported his comments.
Capcom said Street Fighter 6, originally released in 2023, passed 7 million cumulative worldwide sales on June 9, 2026. That sales milestone does not mean 7 million people were active in a given month. Capcom’s release also points to continuing character releases and features such as Modern Control Type, but neither those facts nor estimates based on concurrent counts establish 2XKO’s MAU or prove whether it could have met Merrill’s approximate threshold. Capcom’s sales announcement reports the milestone.
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What happens to 2XKO after active development ends?
As of Riot’s August 20, 2026 announcement, active development was planned to end at the close of 2026, with content and feature work continuing through the year. Riot said the final major content patch was planned for October, with a possible December bug-fix patch. It also said servers would remain online after 2026, the game would remain free to download on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and offline play would be unaffected. Riot announced refunds for purchases made on or before August 20 and changes to gameplay content availability. These are plans stated on that date; consult Riot’s notice for the latest details.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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- VERSATILE CONNECTIVITY — Connect via USB-C for plug-and-play on console and PC, or quickly pair and switch between supported devices with XBOX Wireless and Bluetooth support.
- BUILT-IN AUDIO SUPPORT — Plug in compatible headsets using the 3.5mm audio jack for direct voice chat and immersive in-game sound.
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