Taken down
Is Ryujinx Dead? Why It Shut Down in October 2024 and Which Fork to Use Now
Shut down in October 2024 after Nintendo stepped in; Ryubing and MeloNX descend from it
- Latest
- 1.1.1403 · 2024-10-01
- Team
- gdkchan
- License
- MIT
- Ended
- 2024-10
Key points
- Ryujinx is gone: on 2024-10-01 creator gdkchan was contacted by Nintendo and accepted an agreement to stop development and remove the project's assets.
- There was no public lawsuit and the terms were never disclosed. Internal Android and iOS ports were never released.
- The final release is 1.1.1403 (2024-10-01). Since November 2024 the old ryujinx.org domain has been registered to Nintendo of America.
- Today's ryujinx.app is the site of Ryubing, a community continuation, not the original. Other sites calling themselves the Ryujinx homepage are third-party.
- Use Ryubing on PC and Mac, MeloNX on iPhone, Astris on Apple silicon Macs, or switch to Eden for a more active project.
The original Ryujinx is shut down and will never be updated. On October 1, 2024, creator gdkchan was contacted by Nintendo and agreed to stop development. The GitHub project and downloads vanished immediately, leaving 1.1.1403 as the final release. As of October 2026, Ryujinx's code lives on in several forks: Ryubing on PC and Mac, Kenji-NX with an Android build, MeloNX on iPhone, and Astris for Apple silicon Macs.
What Ryujinx was
Ryujinx was a Switch emulator written in C# by gdkchan, first released on February 5, 2018, under the MIT license. With yuzu it was one of the two big Switch emulators, known for its focus on accuracy and for avoiding game-specific hacks. Its compatibility was generally considered better than yuzu's.
Key milestones:
- July 2020: resolution upscaling, up to 4K or even 8K on strong hardware.
- August 2020: the first Switch emulator with local wireless multiplayer (LDN), letting Ryujinx users play together online.
- November 2020: a disk shader cache.
- July 31, 2022: a Vulkan backend with big performance gains in some games.
- November 26, 2022: a macOS port, the first Switch emulator on Mac. On Apple silicon it used the Hypervisor to run the Switch's ARM code directly.
- March 2024: the interface moved from GTK to Avalonia.
According to the developers in May 2024, about 3,550 of roughly 4,300 tested games were playable.
How it ended (October 2024)
- 2024-10-01: Ryujinx's GitHub page disappeared and the download page went blank. On the project's Discord, developer riperiperi explained that gdkchan "was contacted by Nintendo and offered an agreement to stop working on the project, remove the organization and all related assets he's in control of," and that he accepted.
- Unlike yuzu, there was no public lawsuit, and the terms were never disclosed. Media could only speculate about legal pressure or a payout.
- The shutdown post also revealed that internal Android and iOS ports had been in the works. They were never released.
- November 2024: a user noticed WHOIS records listing Nintendo of America as the owner of ryujinx.org (updated 2024-11-07), as reported by Nintendo Life and others.
The shutdown came only seven months after yuzu's settlement. With both major projects gone, Switch emulation entered its era of forks.
After Ryujinx: the forks
Ryujinx's MIT-licensed code had already been mirrored before the shutdown, and continuations appeared quickly:
| Fork | Platforms | Status as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Ryubing | Windows, Linux, macOS | Forked by GreemDev in 2024-10, renamed in early 2025; stable 1.3.3 (2025-10-11); maintenance-only since 2026-02 |
| Kenji-NX | Desktop + Android | Closer to the original UI; slower updates, restricted downloads |
| MeloNX | iOS / iPadOS | Active; latest 2.7 (2026-10-11); needs sideloading and JIT |
| Astris | Apple silicon Mac | Active; latest 1.0.32 (2026-10-09) |
| Ryulynx | Multi-platform planned | Created 2026-08; no releases yet |
Boiling Steam's October 2026 overview concluded that the Ryujinx line is less robust than the yuzu line when it comes to availability. Nintendo's 2026-02-12 DMCA notice to GitHub named Ryujinx, Ryubing, Kenji-NX, MeloNX and others, and later rounds kept removing Ryujinx mirror repositories.
Beware of "official Ryujinx" sites and "latest Ryujinx" builds
- ryujinx.org: the original site. Closed, with the domain registered to Nintendo of America.
- ryujinx.app: Ryubing's site. It calls itself Ryujinx but is a community continuation, not the original team. The info box on our Ryubing page links to it.
- ryujinx-emulator.com, ryujinxdownload.com, ryujinx.io, ryubing.org, ryubing.com and similar: not official; third-party download sites.
The original Ryujinx has had no new release since October 2024. Any "latest Ryujinx" is either a fork like Ryubing or something of unknown origin. See how to spot fake emulator sites.
What to switch to
| Platform | Pick | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Windows / Linux | Ryubing (familiar) or Eden (more active) | Windows guide |
| Mac | Ryubing, Astris | Mac guide |
| iPhone / iPad | MeloNX | iPhone guide |
| Android | Eden, or an older Kenji-NX build | Android guide |
To choose between Ryubing, Eden and Citron Neo, see the comparison. For keys and firmware, see keys and firmware explained.
FAQ
Can I still use Ryujinx?
The original Ryujinx stopped on 2024-10-01. Its final release, 1.1.1403, will never be updated. When people say Ryujinx today they usually mean Ryubing, the community continuation at ryujinx.app. Its stable release as of October 2026 is 1.3.3 (2025-10-11), and it has been maintenance-only since February 2026.
Did Nintendo sue Ryujinx?
There was no public lawsuit. According to a statement on the project's Discord, creator gdkchan was contacted by Nintendo and offered an agreement to stop working on the project and remove the organization and all related assets he controlled, which he accepted. The terms were not disclosed.
What is the official Ryujinx website? Is ryujinx.app official?
The original site, ryujinx.org, is closed, and November 2024 domain records list Nintendo of America as its owner. ryujinx.app belongs to Ryubing, a community continuation that calls itself Ryujinx but is not the original team. Sites like ryujinx-emulator.com and ryujinxdownload.com are third-party.
What should Mac users use now?
On Apple silicon Macs, Ryubing or Astris, both based on Ryujinx. You can also try Eden's experimental Mac build, or nxnative to turn a single game into a native app.
Is there Ryujinx for iPhone?
The original team had an internal iOS port that was never released. Today the Ryujinx-based option on iPhone and iPad is MeloNX, which needs sideloading and JIT.