Two gaming industry heavyweights, Xbox and Riot Games announced their collaboration back in June 2022. The result of this new partnership is the addition of Riot’s titles to Xbox Game Pass on December 12. Yes, you can now access games like Valorant, League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics and more through the Xbox app on your Windows PC. However, the best part of the Xbox-Riot partnership will be the insane rewards you can unlock in Valorant and League of Legends. So if you’re looking for a step-by-step tutorial on how to link your Riot account to your Xbox account to access the Game Pass rewards, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive in without further delay!
How to Link Your Riot and Xbox Accounts (2022)
Step-by-step guide to link Riot account to Xbox account
The process of linking your Riot account to Xbox is a simple 3-step process. You just need to log into the respective accounts in a web browser and verify the linking process. This is how it works:
1. First you need to navigate to the “Sign in to Xbox SocialWeb page linked here. You need to login to your Microsoft account on the said page.
2. Then, select the Microsoft (Xbox) account you just logged in.
Remark: This step seems redundant and may not appear for all users. It will certainly show up for users who are already logged into their Xbox account in the web browser.
3. Now you need to allow Riot Games to access your Xbox account information to link the two accounts. Click the “Yes” button to verify the connection.
4. You will then be asked to login to your Riot Games account. Enter your login details and proceed to the next step.
5. And that’s it! You have successfully linked your Xbox and Riot accounts. You will see a confirmation message on the screen. Click on the “Okaybutton to go to your Riot account settings page.
5. On your Riot account settings page, you can confirm that the two accounts are linked under the “Connected accountssection.
Unlock Valorant Agents, LOL Champions with Xbox Game Pass
Now you might think that you have successfully linked your Riot and Xbox accounts, so you should already see the effects in game. Well, that’s not the case. At least it wasn’t for me. I opened Valorant after linking my accounts and did not unlock all agents. I restarted the game a few times. However, I had to jump through a few extra hoops to see the benefits of my Xbox Game Pass subscription in Valorant. So follow the steps below:
1. Open the Xbox app and you will see Valorant (or any other Riot game you have installed) appear in the left sidebar. The game showed that an update was pending. Click on the “Updateicon.
Remark: Clicking the update icon did nothing special for me. Instead, my Xbox app crashed a few times in the process. Then I opened the Xbox app again.
2. When I reopened the app, the option to update the game was gone and I was able to access Valorant from the Xbox app. So I clicked the “Play” button.
3. Valorant opened as usual, but this time I was greeted with the “Xbox Game Pass Benefits“unlocked notification in game. Now I can confirm that my Riot and Xbox account linking process worked.
Remark: On an official support page, Riot says the unlocking process can take up to 24 hours in some cases. You will see an in-game notification once the rewards program and benefits are available to you.
4. As shown in the screenshots, Valorant agents such as Astra, Reyna, Yoru and more are now “unlocked with Rewards programfor me. They all carry the Rewards Program indicator. As promised, I also received the free Pocket Sage Gun Buddy reward. You can see a list of all the benefits and rewards of the Riot-Xbox account linkage partnership.
Remark: According to an tweet from Joe Hixson of Riot, remember that rewards unlocked with Xbox Game Pass will be revoked if you terminate your membership. But that doesn’t mean you lose all your progress. “Anything you earn from gameplay will remain unlocked later if you let your subscription expire,” said Hixson.
Not everyone can spend the same amount of time grinding a game and unlocking all the characters. So the partnership between Riot Games and Xbox is a great way to skip the grind and access all the characters at once. And not just the existing characters, but Riot has promised that all Xbox Game Pass subscribers will also be able to play with new agents in Valorant and new champions in League of Legends on release day. That’s a great benefit to spending money on Microsoft’s gaming service. You can read the full list of benefits on Xbox’s website linked here.
In addition, starting December 12, 2022 and until January 1, 2023, you can earn additional limited-time rewards by linking an Xbox profile to a Riot account listed below:
- VALORANT (PC): Pocket Sage Buddy
- League of Legends (PC): Masterpiece Chest and Key
- Teamfight Tactics (PC and mobile): Little Legend Rare Egg
- LoL Wild Rift (Mobile): Random Emote Chest
- Legends of Runeterra (PC and Mobile): Prismatic Chest
Unlock benefits by linking Valorant, LoL account to Xbox
So yes, that’s how you can link your Valorant or LoL Riot accounts to your Xbox account to unlock the awesome benefits. Not only that, you get additional rewards when you successfully connect the two accounts which is a cherry on top for regular players. Now, I’m someone who occasionally plays Valorant and wasn’t able to unlock all the agents, but thanks to the Xbox Game Pass, that’s now possible. Well, it’s great. Are you in the same boat as me, excited to try out new Valorant agents or League of Legends champions? Let us know in the comments below.
