2026 Creator Activations

Greetings, Riftbounders!

2026 brings with it new sets, new cards, and new creator opportunities! Now that our game is launched, we are making our plans to invest in creators who’ve established themselves as authorities on Riftbound and have been making fun and engaging content for their audiences through Origins’ launch. Looking ahead, let’s take a moment and talk about what we have planned for the year ahead starting with our upcoming Spiritforged release.

Spiritforged

Well, kinda.

The way we are handling Spiritforged is something you’ll see repeated for other set releases this year! Influencers who we work with on previews will see continued support for that set, allowing them to revisit first impressions on their preview card(s) and make content about the set as players around the world experience it for the first time.

This support can take a few different forms: The primary way is by mailing out review products. This type of support allows influencers not only to show off all those cool foil treatments that the design team has worked so hard on, but also gives your favorite creators the chance to build decks, playtest matches, and highlight different types of gameplay. 

Beyond sending out cards, we’ll also be sending out a limited number of content kits to creators for each set. These kits contain not only products from the upcoming release, but also some gear for content creation. Here’s the thing—making content for a physical card game is different from making content for a digital game of any kind. The physical setup requires more tools, and so we’re going to provide some of that to creators who’re keen on Riftbound but maybe haven’t done anything like this before. Our hope is that this provides a leg up for people trying to broaden their skillset and allows them to try out something new.

There will also be contract opportunities for Riftbound releases covering gameplay, mechanics, collectability, deck building, and more. Of course, we’re always looking for fresh, new concepts, so keep making what you’re making; we’re bound to see it, and we might just end up paying you to make it. 

Creators and Events

Whenever Riot attends an event, whether it's a PAX or a Regional Qualifier or a Gen Con, you can expect some opportunities for creators on site. Most of these event opportunities allow for you to network with other creators, make content live from the show floor, or even preview something new! With that in mind, we’ll be introducing a few additional badge types to make sure we’re catering not only to those who want to attend the event itself, but also those who want to share the experience with folks at home, and the viewers at home who want a high quality viewing experience. These new badge types will be introduced sometime midyear, so keep an eye out.

For Regional Qualifiers held outside of China, and other events with a more competitive twist, a select number of attendees will be awarded a Creator Competitor badge, which not only allows them to participate in the main competition, but also be a part of panels, cardslinging, social media activations and more.

If you love making content about Organized Play, but don’t feel keen to take on the competition just yet, that’s totally fine! You could be granted a Creator badge instead. This badge gets you into the show, and allows you to experience creator activations without entry into the main event. 

This means that creators will be able to create content on site without interrupting the competitive nature of these regional qualifiers. Instead, they’ll be making content for viewers at home who’re on the fence about heading to a Regional Qualifier near them, bringing more players to our events for an even better experience.

Partner Program?

One of the most exciting things about launching a new game has been to see new faces appear in content creation. The internet is a huge place, and we’ve already seen a Zilean (ha, get it?) creators start making Riftbound content, with some of you leaning into Riftbound in big ways. As with all of Riot's games, we too have a desire to support our creator community. ICYMI, Last year, Riot launched beta partner programs for LOL, TFT, and VALORANT. As those programs are evolving, adding Riftbound to the list of Riot Games' partner programs has definitely been part of the discussion. Since those programs are still in their infancy, a Riftbound Partner Program is not on the immediate horizon, but we're dedicated to our creators nonetheless and are excited to explore ways to do that in the meantime!

This year, you can expect to see us launch a Riftbound Creator Discord for easier collaboration, communication, and management between Riot and our Riftbound Creators. This will be a great resource for folks looking to work with Riot in an official capacity, be it as a caster, a cosplayer, or someone who makes funny TikToks. Discord invites will begin to get sent out at the end of February, and will continue to go out as team bandwidth allows. This space will initially be very small, but we want and expect it to grow significantly as Riftbound sets are released and Riftbound creators establish themselves as authorities in the community.

You can also expect us to continue including creators as part of the campaign moments for new sets, though how we do this might vary across the year. We love seeing your excitement, your content, and (most importantly), your feedback! If you have ideas—we'd love to hear them!

On that note, we also want to support smaller creators as they grow and give them an environment to flourish in. So if you read any of the above opportunities and thought to yourself “but my channel’s too small,” you’ve got it all wrong! Stay engaged, keep making content, and be sure to introduce yourself to the Riftbound team.

We’re happy to have all of you aboard for 2026!

-The Riftbound Influencer Team