Marc Merrill, co-founder, co-CEO, and product director of **Riot Games**, stated that **2XKO** required "hundreds of thousands, or even millions" of monthly active players to justify its development budget. This figure sparked debate within the fighting game community, which typically has a much smaller audience compared to other video game genres. Merrill discussed the project's challenges on the Lemonade Stand show, explaining that the game's cost structure necessitated a large player base to sustain its live-service model, where ongoing content updates and player engagement are essential for profitability. Merrill noted that the release of **Street Fighter 6** in 2023 by Capcom disrupted **Riot's** plans to capture attention through **Street Fighter V**. "We had a unique opportunity to achieve great things and help the fighting game community in a concrete way, but Street Fighter 6 was released, about eight years after the start of 2XKO's development," he said. He also mentioned that there was no internal consensus on the 2XKO strategy, leading to disagreements within the executive team. Ultimately, the game did not attract enough players to justify the investment, leading **Riot** to cancel planned content updates and refund players. "We can only blame ourselves," he said, adding that the game resonated with some players but not enough for the long-term model it was intended to offer. **Riot** decided to create a boxed version, refund everyone, and apologize for not meeting their goals. **Street Fighter 6**, which is considered the biggest fighting game on the current market, has an average of between 16,000 and 20,000 monthly active users on Steam. **2XKO** was initially presented as "Project L" in 2019, but its chaotic release after a long development period diminished the hype around the game. **Riot** officially announced its intention to end active development after December 2026, although the online game will remain available. The community expressed surprise that **Riot** considered such a high number of players necessary for the game's survival, given the niche nature of the genre. Some questioned whether **Riot** had anticipated the game's limited success from the start.