Riot Delays League of Legends Replay Privacy Change to Patch 26.21

Riot Games is holding off on its plan to make League of Legends replays private. The change was originally set to arrive with Patch 26.20, the Worlds patch, but Riot now says it has been pushed to Patch 26.21.

The delay comes after pushback from creators, coaches, analysts, and other players who use replay downloads to study matches they weren’t part of. Riot said on October 7 that it’s working on a solution so those groups “are not meaningfully impacted” before the restriction goes live.

Once the change does arrive, players will only be able to download and watch replays from matches they personally played in. Replays from other players’ games will no longer be available through the client, and third-party apps and websites will lose access to replay downloads entirely.

Riot has framed the move as a security measure. According to the studio, replay access and third-party access to game memory have been used by cheat developers and other bad actors to build unauthorized tools around League match data. The replay restriction is part of a broader effort to close those gaps.

For regular players, the core replay feature isn’t going away. You’ll still be able to review your own games in the League client. The bigger question is what Riot’s workaround looks like for people who depend on outside replays for coaching, analysis videos, scouting, or educational content.