WWE 2K20 was so poorly received due to its quality that WWE 2K21 was cancelled in April 2020 and the series would not release a new title for almost 3 years.

The general state of the game can mostly be attested to long time developer Yuke's departure from the series in August 2019, 3 months before the game was eventually released. 2K would shift development over to their NBA developer Visual Concepts, but they would ultimately have many issues taking over another developer's project months before release.