Riot Games will pull the plug on League of Legends Classic early next year

Riot Games is shutting down League of Legends Classic in January 2027 at the end of Season 3, retiring the nostalgic mode just months after its July rollout. The studio announced that player enthusiasm tapered off rapidly following the launch, with most participants returning to the modern version of the title. While Riot is shelving the project for now, it plans to eventually revive Classic as an adjusted event mode. [1][2]

Until the closure, Riot will roll out windowed queues in low-population regions plagued by long wait times and matchmaking rating disparities, though custom games will stay permanently available. Players will receive refunds for Classic-only purchases that will lose functionality, and beginning with patch 26.21, the in-game store will limit sales to Champions, Runes, and Rune Pages. The developer still intends to add champions through patch 26.23, including Aatrox, Caitlyn, Lucian, and Urgot. [1][2]

The retro offering follows similar nostalgia-focused initiatives in the industry, such as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft Classic, but struggled to maintain an audience. The shuttering also marks another step in Riot's broader retrenchment; the publisher recently canceled its fighting game 2XKO, shifted Legends of Runeterra into maintenance mode, and offloaded Hypixel Studios alongside the project Hytale. [1][2]