Riot Games Job Cuts Continue After 2XKO Team Layoffs

Riot Games, Inc. has laid off staff in its internal publishing division, a company spokesperson confirmed in a statement to Game Developer. According to the anonymous spokesperson, three publishing divisions were impacted, resulting in 12 different roles being eliminated.

They also detailed that the incident coincided with "small team-by-team changes," affecting a few individuals. The news stemmed from an X (formerly Twitter) post by Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles. Mykles wrote in a post on Feb 26, 2026, “Riot quietly laid off more people yesterday,” while highlighting that there has been no report or announcement while posting.

However, it’s still not reported which publishing teams were affected by the layoff, nor has Riot published any official statement at the time of writing. The incident follows Riot’s separate reductions at the 2XKO development team earlier this month.

Riot Games’ Continued Job Cuts in 2026

The publisher’s actions in February, which previously reduced almost half (80 positions) of the fighting game team, combined with the reported layoff amounts to roughly 92 job losses. Riot’s current reductions reflect a layoff trend and restructuring among prominent gaming publishers and developers, including Electronic Arts and Rockstar, the studio behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

Riot, which was fully acquired by Chinese company Tencent, has seen periodic rounds of staff reductions over the past few years. In 2024, the company cut off almost 11% of its global workforce. A separate report by Udoniss highlighted that Riot has laid off approximately 600 employees between 2023 and 2026.

Riot is the entity responsible for major video game titles, including Valorant and League of Legends (LoL). It also controls most of the major LoL esports circuits and the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT).