Riot Games enforces restrictions to League of Legends replays downloads

• New update by Riot Games limits access to League of Legends replay downloads
• Only players who have played in matches will have the option to download them
• Restrictions were implemented by Riot Games to limit data usage in other games, including Valorant and Teamfight Tactics

A new update affects League of Legends replay downloads.

The change was confirmed by Riot Games only recently and has come into effect with an update released on Tuesday, October 6, 2026.

League of Legends players can only access replays from matches they participate in

Per the update, the leading game developer confirmed that players will only be able to access replays from matches they played in.

This otherwise means that League of Legends players will no longer be able to download replays from other players.

Importantly, the update effectively restricts access to replay downloads by third-party apps and websites.

According to Riot Games, the decision to enforce restrictions on League of Legends replay downloads addresses potential security vulnerabilities.

Prohibiting third-party apps and websites from accessing game memory follows recently attempted exploits by cheat developers, as well as other bad actors that were able to leverage such data to build unauthorized League of Legends tools.

"Rest assured that this change will not impact your ability to VOD review your own matches by downloading and watching your replays directly in the League client," Riot Games wrote in its update log for League of Legends.

Riot Games confirmed it left "the door cracked open for third-party applications, allowing them to read from or write to game memory of extracurricular use cases, including things like trackers, overlays, or mods."

However, the game developer said the advancing AI-reverse engineering capabilities resulted in an uptick in the "would-be hackers at an unsustainable pace," pushing the company to its latest decision.

Riot Games acknowledged that such hacking attempts created new cheats, bot farms and impacted in-game experiences, making its decision logical and necessary.

The change affects Teamfight Tactics and Valorant

The vast majority of League of Legends players won’t be impacted by this change.

At the same time, the game developer confirmed that the change won’t result in bans, as it simply blocks unauthorized tools from interacting with the game client.

It is worth noting that the new rules impact not only League of Legends but other Riot Games’ titles, including Teamfight Tactics and Valorant.

Considering the change, third-party tools and websites that rely specifically on such data will have to change the way they operate.

Riot Games said that many third-party tools do not pilfer game memory and for those that do, alternatives via the official APIs are available.

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