League of Legends offline after SSL certificate error repeats decade-old issue

League of Legends went offline on January 4 2026 due to error affecting logins worldwide, echoing similar 2016 outage

League of Legends was unavailable for many players on January 4 2026 after an SSL certificate issue prevented logins for several hours.

Attempting to launch the game or connect to servers returned secure connection errors, prompting widespread reports on social media.

Riot Games confirmed the problem on League’s X/Twitter page, stating it was “aware of an issue that’s impacting games and preventing some players from logging in.”

The outage mirrors a similar situation from early 2016, when an expired SSL certificate caused widespread login failures. An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate encrypts connections between a user and a server to protect data such as login credentials and account information.

If a certificate expires or is not renewed, secure connections may be blocked, preventing access to services like League of Legends.

During the 2016 outage, a Riot senior software engineer posted on Reddit that the certificate had expired despite its intended auto-renewal.

The engineer wrote, “We’re aware of this, and we’re taking a look now. Appears our cert expired for the new year when it should have auto-renewed. Happy New Year, Redditors.”

Players across Europe and North America reported connection problems during the 2026 incident. The issue was resolved after Riot renewed the certificate, which players noted is now valid until the year 2125.

Fans on social media credited the update for restoring access to the game, with Riot confirming normal server operations had resumed.

Riot Games has not indicated any long-term changes to prevent similar outages but acknowledged the incident publicly and restored service promptly.