How to Protect Your Riot Games Account: 🔒 Complete Security Guide for 2026 🛡️

Protecting your Riot Games account means protecting everything tied to it across every Riot title: your League of Legends champions and skins, your Valorant Agent and weapon skin collection, your TFT Little Legends, your ranked history across all games, and any payment methods linked to your account.

A single Riot account is the key to all of it. Because Riot uses one unified account across League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, Wild Rift, 2XKO, and every other title in their ecosystem, the stakes of losing access are higher than with a single-game account. An attacker who gets in can affect your entire gaming history in one move.

This guide covers how to set up proper security on your Riot account, how to make your stats and profile private on tracking sites, a clear-eyed look at Riot’s own security history, and what to do if your account is ever compromised.

How to Protect Your Riot Games Account: Security Setup

Step 1: Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-Factor Authentication is the most impactful single step you can take. With MFA enabled, anyone attempting to log into your Riot account needs both your password and a time-sensitive code that only you can access. A stolen password alone is not enough to break in.

Riot supports three MFA methods, listed from strongest to weakest:

Authenticator App (strongest): Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator generate time-based six-digit codes locally on your phone. These codes exist only on your device, are not transmitted over SMS or email, and expire after 30 seconds. This method is resistant to SIM-swapping attacks and email compromise.
Riot Mobile App: Sends a push notification to the Riot Mobile app on your phone. You approve or deny the login attempt directly. Fast and convenient, and significantly more secure than email-based verification.
Email verification (weakest): Sends a code to your registered email address. More secure than no MFA at all, but dependent on your email account being secure.

Riot rewards you for enabling MFA. Players who activate MFA through the Riot Mobile app receive the Keep It Safer Gun Buddy in Valorant automatically, added directly to their inventory with no additional steps required.

How to enable MFA on your Riot account:

Go to account.riotgames.com and sign in
Click Sign-In & Security in the left sidebar
Find the Multi-Factor Authentication section
Choose your preferred method: Authenticator App, Riot Mobile, or Email
Follow the setup instructions for your chosen method
Once complete, every new login session will require a verification code from your chosen method

You can also choose to Remember this device for 30 days when logging in. Checking this option on your personal PC means you will not need to enter the code for a month on that specific device. Only enable this on devices you personally own and control.

Step 2: Use a Strong, Unique Password

Reusing your Riot password on any other service is the most common path to account compromise. Attackers use credential stuffing: they take username and password combinations from breached databases and test them against Riot’s login system automatically at scale.

Riot’s own recommendation for creating a strong password: choose a few unrelated, uncommon words and string them together. A phrase-based password is long, difficult to guess, and easier to remember than a random string of characters. Adding numbers and special characters makes it stronger still.

The ideal approach is using a password manager (Bitwarden is free, 1Password and Dashlane are paid options) to generate and store a completely random, unique password for your Riot account. This eliminates the need to memorize it and guarantees it is not reused anywhere.

What Riot’s password policy covers:

Passwords must meet minimum length and complexity requirements
Riot blocks credentials that have appeared in known public data breach databases during account creation and password changes
Riot will never ask for your password. If any message or site asks for it, it is a scam

Step 3: Verify Your Email Address

Email verification is the foundation of your Riot account security. A verified email address is required to use MFA, and it is Riot’s primary method for contacting you about account changes, suspicious activity, and password resets.

How to verify your email:

Go to account.riotgames.com
Under General, check whether your email address shows as verified
If not verified, click the option to send a verification email and follow the link in that message

Once your email is verified, anyone attempting to change your password or email address must first confirm the action through your email account. This stops attackers from locking you out even if they somehow know your password.

Step 4: Secure Your Email Account

Your email account is the master key to your Riot account. If an attacker gains access to your email, they can request a Riot password reset and take over your account without ever knowing your current password.

Securing your email as part of your Riot account security:

Use a strong, unique password on your email account that you do not use on Riot or any other service
Enable two-factor authentication on your email account
Review which third-party apps have access to your email and remove anything you do not recognize or use
Use an email address you expect to have long-term access to. Losing access to your email makes Riot account recovery significantly harder

Step 5: Never Enter Your Riot Credentials on Third-Party Sites

Phishing is one of the most common methods used to steal Riot accounts. Attackers build websites that mimic Riot’s login page and capture your credentials the moment you enter them.

Riot’s own guidance is direct: only enter your Riot credentials on authenticate.riotgames.com. Any other site asking for your Riot username and password is either a phishing page or an unauthorized service.

Common phishing triggers in the Riot community:

Sites claiming to offer free Valorant Points, free skins, or rank boosts that require your login
Discord messages from “Riot support” asking you to verify your account through a link
Third-party stat tracking sites that request your actual login credentials rather than just your Riot ID and tagline
Emails claiming your account has been flagged or suspended that link to a non-Riot domain

How to verify a site is legitimate before entering your credentials:

Check the URL is exactly authenticate.riotgames.com for login pages
Look for the locked padlock and https:// in the address bar
If you are unsure, navigate to riotgames.com directly through your bookmarks rather than clicking any link

Step 6: Sign Out on Shared or Public Devices

Playing on a shared computer at a friend’s house, a school lab, or a public PC creates risk for your Riot account.

Best practices for shared device use:

Never allow the device to save or remember your Riot credentials
Sign out completely when you finish your session
Use the browser’s private or incognito mode when logging in on any device you do not personally own
Change your Riot password from your own device after logging in anywhere you do not fully trust
Consider your MFA method: if someone sees your screen and captures your verification code, they have a 30-second window to use it. Use an authenticator app rather than email whenever possible on shared devices

Account sharing, boosting, and trading are violations of Riot’s Terms of Use and result in account bans. Beyond the ban risk, sharing your account creates security vulnerabilities you cannot control:

The other person knows your password and could access your account at any time
If their device is compromised by malware, your credentials are exposed
Account recovery becomes significantly harder when the account has been accessed from multiple unrelated devices and locations
Riot’s official position is clear: only you should have access to your account, and only through your own email address

How to Make Your Riot Profile Private

Riot does not have a single toggle that fully hides your account from public view the way Steam does. Instead, privacy works across two layers: your Riot account data settings and third-party tracker site settings.

Privacy Within Your Riot Account

Your Riot account management page at account.riotgames.com contains privacy and data settings that control what information Riot shares externally and with connected third-party services. Navigate to the Privacy section to review and adjust:

What data Riot shares with connected gaming platforms (Xbox, PlayStation, etc.)
Communication preferences and notification settings
Connected apps and services that have access to your account

Revoking access for third-party apps you no longer use or recognize in your account settings limits what those services can pull from your account data.

Making Your Valorant Stats Private on Tracker Sites

Third-party stat tracking sites like Valorant Tracker (tracker.gg), OP.GG, and similar platforms pull data from Riot’s public API to display your match history, rank, agent stats, and performance metrics. Your stats are visible to anyone who searches your Riot ID on these sites by default.

To hide your stats from tracker sites:

Method 1: Through Valorant Tracker (tracker.gg)

Go to tracker.gg and create a Tracker Network account
Sign in with your Riot account to link them
On the homepage, look for the Make Private option under the search bar
Confirm the action to hide your profile from other users

Method 2: Through OP.GG

Go to op.gg and search your Riot ID
Click Riot Login to authenticate
Within your stats page, find the privacy toggle to switch between public and private

Important limitations:

If you reach Immortal rank or above in Valorant, your ranked stats remain publicly visible regardless of privacy settings
Privacy settings on third-party sites may reset when Riot updates their API or Terms of Service. Check your settings each Act to confirm they are still active
Making your profile private on one tracker site does not automatically make it private on others. Each site requires its own configuration

How to Anonymize Your Riot ID

Riot introduced an Anonymize Your Riot ID option that lets you change your public display name and tagline to hide your regular Riot ID. This is distinct from making your stats private, but it is a useful step for players who want to separate their in-game identity from their online presence.

To anonymize your Riot ID:

Go to your Riot account settings
Navigate to the section for changing your Riot ID
Select a new display name and tagline unconnected to your real identity or usual username

Note that your Riot ID change has a time-limited cooldown between updates. Plan accordingly if you want to use this feature regularly.

Was Riot Games Hacked?

This is a frequently asked question, and the honest answer is: yes, Riot Games has experienced security incidents. Understanding what happened and what those incidents mean for your personal account helps you make informed decisions about your own security.

The most significant and verified Riot security incident occurred in January 2023. On January 20, Riot publicly announced that its development environment had been compromised through a social engineering attack. An attacker tricked a Riot employee via SMS and used that access to pivot through the company’s internal network.

What was stolen: The attacker exfiltrated source code for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and a legacy anti-cheat platform called Packman. The attackers subsequently demanded $10 million in ransom and threatened to leak the source code. Riot refused to pay.

What was not stolen: Riot confirmed that player data, player account credentials, and personal information were not accessed in this incident. The breach was limited to internal development systems.

Impact for players: The breach temporarily delayed game patches and updates across Riot’s titles while security teams assessed the damage. No player accounts were directly compromised as a result of this incident.

Subsequent Account Security Incidents (2024 to 2025)

Beyond the 2023 internal breach, Riot accounts have been affected by two categories of ongoing attacks that do not involve Riot’s own systems being breached:

Credential stuffing attacks (2024): Attackers used email and password combinations obtained from breaches of other services to access Riot accounts where players reused their passwords. These attacks affected an estimated 800,000 accounts and succeed exclusively against accounts without MFA and with reused passwords.
Account takeover campaigns (2025): Phishing campaigns and credential-stealing malware contributed to large-scale account takeover attempts affecting an estimated 650,000 accounts.

Neither of these categories required any breach of Riot’s own systems. They exploit player behavior, specifically password reuse and clicking phishing links. Both are entirely preventable through MFA and unique passwords.

Alleged Database Sale (January 2026)

In January 2026, a threat actor on a hacker forum claimed to possess a database containing Riot Games user logins and offered it for sale. As of the time of writing, the full scope of this alleged leak has not been verified by Riot or independent security researchers. Riot has not issued a public statement confirming or denying the claim.

What to do regardless of whether this is verified: treat it as a reason to enable MFA immediately if you have not already, change your Riot password if you suspect it may have been reused from another service, and review your account activity for anything unfamiliar.

What Riot’s Security Incidents Mean for Your Account

The clearest conclusion from Riot’s security history: the greatest risk to individual player accounts is not a breach of Riot’s infrastructure but rather credential stuffing and phishing attacks that exploit player behavior.

Enabling MFA and using a unique password eliminates the risk from credential stuffing entirely and dramatically reduces the effectiveness of phishing attacks. Both measures are available for free, take minutes to set up, and protect your entire Riot library across every game.

What to Do If Your Riot Account Is Compromised

Signs of Unauthorized Access

You receive a Riot email about a login, password change, or email change that you did not initiate
You are logged out and your password no longer works
Your Riot ID has been changed without your action
Friends report receiving suspicious messages from your account
Skins, champions, or other items are missing from your collections
Your rank or in-game history shows matches you did not play

Immediate Steps If You Suspect Compromise

If you still have access to your account:

Change your Riot password immediately from a trusted device
Review your MFA settings and confirm your email address is still yours
Review connected apps and revoke anything unfamiliar
Scan your PC for malware. Keylogger malware captures new passwords as you type them, so changing your password is ineffective if malware is still present
Secure your email account with a password change and MFA if not already enabled
Contact Riot Player Support at support.riotgames.com to report the incident

If you have been locked out:

Go to account.riotgames.com and attempt to reset your password using the email address originally associated with the account
If the email address has been changed by the attacker, use the account recovery option to contact Riot Player Support directly
Provide as much proof of original ownership as possible: original email address, previous usernames, payment receipts, and any other account history you can document

Pro Tips: Keeping Your Riot Account Secure

Enable the Riot Mobile app for MFA instead of email: The Riot Mobile app delivers push-based MFA approval that is faster to use and more secure than waiting for an email code. It is also the method that grants the Keep It Safer Gun Buddy in Valorant.
Check your privacy settings on tracker sites every Valorant Act: Riot’s API terms change between Acts, and some privacy configurations can reset when the API terms are updated. A quick check at the start of each Act ensures you are still hidden if that matters to you.
Treat every unsolicited message about your Riot account as suspicious by default: Riot Support will never contact you first through Discord, Reddit, or in-game chat. Legitimate Riot communications arrive only through your verified email address from verified Riot domains.
Use a different email address for your Riot account than the one you use publicly: If your public email address is known (from social media, Discord, or forum profiles), it makes targeted phishing attempts easier to execute. An email address used only for gaming accounts is harder for attackers to associate with you.

Common Mistakes That Lead to Riot Account Compromise

Using the same password as another gaming account or email address: If your League of Legends password is the same as your email password, or the same as your Steam password, a single breach of any of those services puts your Riot account at immediate risk. Fix: Generate a unique password for Riot through a password manager and never reuse it.
Entering Riot credentials on third-party skin sites, RP generators, or rank boost services: These sites are either outright phishing pages designed to steal credentials or legitimate third-party services that should only request your Riot ID and tagline, not your login credentials. Fix: Never enter your Riot username and password on any site that is not authenticate.riotgames.com.
Disabling MFA because entering a code each login is inconvenient: MFA with the 30-day device memory option means you only need to enter the code once a month on your personal PC. The inconvenience is minimal. The protection is significant. Fix: Enable MFA and use the remember device option on your personal computer to reduce the login friction to near zero.
Not securing the email account linked to Riot: A Riot account with MFA enabled can still be bypassed if the associated email account is compromised, because email codes for MFA and password resets both go through it. Fix: Enable MFA on your email account as well as your Riot account. Treat your email security as part of your Riot account security.

Play Riot Games with a Stable Connection Using ExitLag

Securing your Riot account protects your collection and your rank history. Securing your connection ensures that every match you play reflects your actual skill rather than the limitations of your network path.

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Features that directly benefit Riot players:

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Multi-Internet: Supports up to four simultaneous internet connections. If your primary drops mid-match, a backup takes over instantly without disconnecting your session.

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All product names and trademarks mentioned in this article belong to their respective owners. Riot Games, Valorant, League of Legends, and all related marks are trademarks of Riot Games, Inc. They are used for informational and educational purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with the rights holders.

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