Minion Rush is shutting down after 13 years, and an offline version is what survives

Gameloft is closing Minion Rush, the Despicable Me endless runner that has been on app stores since 2013. The studio has published a sunset FAQ laying out the timetable, and unusually for a mobile shutdown it ends with something still playable rather than nothing at all.

The timetable

Two dates matter. On October 30 the game comes off app stores and in-app purchases are switched off - after that, nobody new can download it. On January 29, 2027 the online servers shut down and customer support ends with them.

In between, a farewell event runs from October 1 to October 28 with exclusive in-game rewards, and Gameloft says progression is being accelerated for the final stretch so content that used to be hard to reach becomes faster and easier to get.

What offline mode actually keeps

If you still have the game installed after January 29, you get an offline mode built on the core gameplay stored locally on your device. What goes away is everything connected: live events, leaderboards, cloud saves and social features. Gameloft is also careful not to overpromise, warning that as operating systems and devices change it "cannot guarantee it will remain playable indefinitely".

Soft currencies - Tokens, Bananas and G-Coins - stay with you offline, but the FAQ is blunt that there will be fewer places to spend them, and advises using what you have before January 29. Online account data and cloud saves become inaccessible, though some local progress may survive on the device.

Why it matters

Gameloft points at the evolving mobile landscape rather than naming a reason, saying only that it has made "the difficult decision to wind down our services". What is not standard is leaving an offline build behind: most live-service mobile games simply stop existing, and players lose the lot.