Riot has pushed private replays back to Patch 26.21. The 26.20 notes said you'd only be able to watch replays of your own games from now on, Midbeast and Vandiril both put out videos about it the next morning, and Riot announced the delay the same day.
League News
Private Replays Delayed
Now Patch 26.21Replays work the way they always have for the whole of Patch 26.20. Riot moved the private replay change to Patch 26.21, due October 21, 2026, and wants a fix for creators and coaches in place before it ships.
Riot hasn't dropped the restriction. Once it lands, you'll only be able to open replays of games you played in yourself. What's changed is the timing, plus a promise that the people who make League videos and coach other players won't lose their footage with it.
What the 26.20 Patch Notes Said
It went into the notes as a short section called Private Replays, sitting between the skin announcements and the champion changes. No dev blog or video came with it.
The game memory part was already public. A Riot support article from September 29 said unknown third-party apps would lose access to game memory from October 6, and blamed AI-assisted reverse engineering for a rise in cheats and bot farms. Replays were never mentioned there. They showed up for the first time in the patch notes.
One Day Later, the Delay
- October 6The 26.20 notes go up with the Private Replays section.
- October 7, 8:00 AM PTMidbeast uploads a video titled "Goodbye."
- October 7, 8:32 AM PTVandiril uploads "Riot has just DROPPED A NUKE…"
- October 7, 9:48 AM PTThe League account posts that the change is moving to 26.21.
The announced changes to replays are being delayed to patch 26.21.
We are working on a solution to ensure the creators and coaches out there that rely on replays are not meaningfully impacted by this change and want to have that in place before this goes live.League of Legends @LeagueOfLegends October 7, 2026
Riot hasn't said what that solution is, or whether it covers anyone outside creators and coaches.
Midbeast: "Goodbye"
Drew "Midbeast" Timbs is an Australian creator, and most of his videos take a game from a top player like Faker, download it from their match history and talk over the top of it. The 26.20 notes took away the thing his channel is built on, and his video went up the morning the patch landed.
Midbeast's YouTube channel, October 7, 2026. Past 280,000 views by October 8.
Most of the video is about where he started rather than about money. He talks about being a silver player who watched Bjergsen's Syndra replays to get better, and says that's what got him hooked on League in the first place. On what's left for his channel if he can only work from streams, he's blunt: "this channel at the end of the day, if you have to rely on that, is cooked."
Vandiril: "Riot has just DROPPED A NUKE…"
Vandiril (that's the spelling, one L at the end) makes League news and highlight videos and is part of Riot's own League Partner Program. His video went up half an hour after Midbeast's and opens with "Riot has dropped a literal nuke at League of Legends."
Vandiril's YouTube channel, October 7, 2026. Past 900,000 views by October 8.
He spends less time on his own channel and more on who else gets caught by it. His line was that "the more you think about it, the worse it gets."
He made two more points. If you get banned, you lose your own match history, and under the new rules nobody else can pull those games either, so a ban you think is unfair has no footage behind it. And pro teams lose a way to scout each other's solo queue habits, which he expects will push some pros to stream less, since every stream becomes scouting material for the teams they play against.
Why Replays Matter So Much
A replay downloaded from someone else's match history is a full game file you can scrub through with a free camera and every player's view one keypress away. A stream is one player's screen with their webcam on top. That gap is what the creators were reacting to.
Replay commentary channels
Midbeast's format: pick a top player's game, download it and break down what they're doing on their champion. There's no source for it without other people's replays.
Guides and highlight videos
Creators who spot a strange build in someone's match history download the game to show it working. Under the 26.20 wording that whole route closes.
Coaches and analysts
Reviewing your own player means asking them to send files. Watching an opposing team's players outside official matches and scrims gets close to impossible.
Players trying to climb
Riot's own replay FAQ tells you to download ranked replays from friends' profiles. Pulling a one-trick's game to learn a matchup is how plenty of people get better at a champion.
What doesn't change is your own games. The 26.20 notes say you'll still be able to download and watch your replays in the client to review them.
How to Save a Replay Before 26.21
There's a catch. Riot's replay FAQ says replays "last for the length of a patch cycle, meaning they'll expire once you patch up." A replay file from 26.20 won't play once 26.21 arrives, restriction or no restriction. To keep anything from someone else's game past October 21, save it as video while you can still open it.
- Find the game. Open your own profile or a friend's and go to Match History. The client shows the last 20 games, and Riot's FAQ says you can download ranked replays from a friend's profile.
- Download it. Hit the download button on the game. On the end of game screen it sits in the upper right, next to Advanced Details. Once the replay file (.rofl) is downloaded the button changes to Watch Replay.
- Set your video quality. Highlights record at 720p by default. You can raise it in the replay's in-game settings, and you have to do it before you start recording.
- Record what you want to keep. Press Ctrl + V to start a Highlight and Ctrl + V again to stop. Hitting 1 to 5 or Q to T jumps between champions, and pressing the key twice locks the camera on one.
- Find the file. Highlights save as .webm video to
C:\Users\(your name)\Documents\LeagueofLegends\Highlights, and the client shows the path when it confirms a capture. To change where replays and Highlights go, open client Settings and look under Replays. The Highlights section of your profile lists every clip too. - Do it before October 21. That's the 26.21 release date on Riot's patch schedule, and every 26.20 replay expires when you patch.
A .webm plays in Chrome or Firefox if you drag it in, and Riot's FAQ suggests VLC as well. Unlike the .rofl, it'll still play after the patch.
FAQ
Are League replays private now?
No. Riot delayed the change, so on Patch 26.20 you can still download replays of other players' games. It's now set for Patch 26.21.
When does the replay change go live?
Patch 26.21, which Riot's patch schedule lists for October 21, 2026. Riot has said it wants its creator and coach solution in place first.
Can I still watch my own replays after 26.21?
Yes. The patch notes say you'll still be able to download and watch replays of your own matches in the client for VOD review.
Why is Riot making replays private?
Riot says cheat developers and other bad actors have exploited replay access, along with third-party access to game memory, to build unauthorized tools around League game data. It's part of the same lockdown that cut game memory access for unknown third-party apps on October 6.
Will third-party replay sites still work?
Through 26.20, yes. The original announcement says third-party apps and sites lose replay downloads entirely once the change ships.
Is it Vandiril or Vandril?
Vandiril. His YouTube handle is @Vandiril and his X handle is @vandiril.
Midbeast and Vandiril quotes transcribed from their October 7 videos.
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