{
  "id": 11427179,
  "title": "Riot needed absurd player counts 'in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions' for 2XKO, dooming it from launch",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/riot-needed-absurd-player-counts-in-the-high-hundreds-of-thousands-if",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-02T11:16:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PC Gamer",
    "slug": "pc-gamer",
    "url": "https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fighting/riots-absurd-expectations-of-player-counts-in-the-high-hundreds-of-thousands-if-not-millions-doomed-2xko-from-the-start/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "2XKO's development ended, with Riot turning it into a box game, leaving developers frustrated but not surprised. A high hundreds of thousands to millions of players was needed for the game to succeed, which seemed desperate. Monthly active users (MAU) indicate unique users logging in and doing something during a month, but the article uses concurrent users as a rough estimate. Street Fighter 6 has a 30,000 concurrent peak on PC, with an estimated 100,000 consistently playing daily. Even if generous estimates claim 25% play on PC, this still only brings the total to 400,000 players in a 24-hour period. To reach one million monthly MAU, the game would need to attract new and returning players daily. Even Street Fighter 6, a popular fighting game, only has a 24-hour concurrent peak of 1,580, far from the required numbers. Comparing 2XKO to other supported fighting games like Guilty Gear: Strive, which has a 24-hour concurrent peak of 1,580, further emphasizes the game's unlikelihood of reaching the expected player base. The article asks if Riot's overconfidence or poor market research led to 2XKO's failure, or if the developers were inefficient. The answers to these questions are not flattering.",
  "summary": "The cost is too dang high.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "GamesIndustry",
        "title": "2XKO would have needed an MAU base \"in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions\" to succeed",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/02/2xko-would-have-needed-an-mau-base-in-the-high-hundreds-of-thousands",
        "published": "2026-10-02T10:10:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}