Riot Games will shut down League of Legends Classic in January 2027, the company announced in a developer update on the official League of Legends website.

The current Classic season will be the last, and Riot says it will refund Classic content made obsolete by the closure. According to a Riot spokesperson, players had fun revisiting the older version of the game with Classic, but "at this point though, most have gone back to other parts of League."

Classic will keep receiving content until the closure, but no new season is planned after the current one. League of Legends Classic was built around nostalgia for the older era of the game.

The mode removed most champions and kits introduced since 2013, brought back an older version of the Summoner's Rift map, and promised to add "new" old champions faster than the original game did. Riot has not given an exact January date for the shutdown.

The mode is not being deleted for good. "We'll then put Classic back in the box for now, with the goal of bringing it back, likely as an event mode with adjustments and additions," Riot says.

The company also plans to share more about what it learned from this run, including where it thinks it got Classic right, where it could have gone "more classic," and where sticking too closely to the past held the experience back.

Riot described the mode as "a true labor of love" for its developers, thanked players who asked for it on social media and voted in the Council, and said it will keep exploring different ways to play League.

Classic still has content coming before it goes offline. At least seven more champions are scheduled to arrive in the mode:

• Mordekaiser, Yorick, Hecarim, and Lucian in the upcoming 26.21 update
• Volibear, Urgot, and Udyr in later updates

Players who bought Classic content have little to do right now. Riot says refunds will be issued for Classic content rendered obsolete by the closure, but the update does not explain which items qualify, how the refunds will be paid out, or when they will be processed.

Players who still enjoy the mode have until January to play the final season, including the champions added in 26.21. Anyone weighing a purchase of Classic content in the meantime should keep the shutdown date in mind, since the mode ends in January 2027 regardless of when the item was bought.

Riot has not said when Classic could return as an event mode or which changes that version would include.