The real reason why MK11 has more "active" players

[Cypris Melaenis]

MK 11 is infinitely more grindy and you don't even have to play yourself, you can turn on the bot who's gonna unlock almost everything for you. I've 256 hours in it and about 80% of that time was played by AI.

[potato]

so it's better because you don't play it? lol

[Cypris Melaenis]

Originally posted by potato:

so it's better because you don't play it? lol

Let me explain it in even easier words:
In MK1 you can unlock everything that the game has to offer with significantly less effort. While MK11 is absurdly grindy and depending on luck it can take hundreds and hundreds of hours to unlock everything. I bet that at least 50% of these people are not even playing themselves but rather using AI to grind stuff for them.

[HypaLink]

Sounds like cope. No fighting game in history had more people playing the previous one, well after the new one's release, regardless of "grind levels"

[FelpsFGCYT]

No. ppl went back to mk11 because its less boring and more balanced. plus mk1 has tons of problems mainly for pc users. ppl got tired and went back to mk11.

[potato]

Originally posted by Nobody important:

Let me explain it in even easier words:
In MK1 you can unlock everything that the game has to offer with significantly less effort. While MK11 is absurdly grindy and depending on luck it can take hundreds and hundreds of hours to unlock everything. I bet that at least 50% of these people are not even playing themselves but rather using AI to grind stuff for them.

yea but why do you want the things you grind for you if you don't even want to play the game

[Cypris Melaenis]

Originally posted by potato:

Originally posted by Nobody important:

Let me explain it in even easier words:
In MK1 you can unlock everything that the game has to offer with significantly less effort. While MK11 is absurdly grindy and depending on luck it can take hundreds and hundreds of hours to unlock everything. I bet that at least 50% of these people are not even playing themselves but rather using AI to grind stuff for them.

yea but why do you want the things you grind for you if you don't even want to play the game

I guess you don't understand how collector's mind works. Besides I did play it for about 20% of total time. And watching how AI fights was entertaining for me.

[Cypris Melaenis]

Originally posted by HypaLink:

Sounds like cope. No fighting game in history had more people playing the previous one, well after the new one's release, regardless of "grind levels"

No cope whatsoever, I've enjoyed both. Just my own insight and honest thought as the collector. Personally I like MK1 more for significantly reducing the grind. Because eventually I grew really tired of trying to 100% MK11. And I also was absolutely sick of the abysmal overconvoluted inventory system (F**K Jinsei management!).
I've 115 hours in MK1 all of which I spent in SP. I think I am one of the very few people who appreciate slow updates. Usually I log in only once in a week to get new weekly outfit. Well and finish the invasions of course which I also enjoy. Overall I am very happy and pleased that the game isn't grindy like at all.

[Animented]

The real reason is... mk11 is just better bruh. Mk1 is a downgrade

[GeNeRaL]

mk11 is agreed upon as the most annoying and boring fighting game in the series. Casuals who never touch KL or multiplayer like it a lot because there is ♥♥♥♥ ton of things you can grind (single player "content"). ask anyone here who said mk11 is a better game about any advanced techniques in mk11 or in mk1 and they wont be able to say anything

[mylene.pc]

Originally posted by potato:

so it's better because you don't play it? lol

Ahahahahahahah

[Madao]

The real reason is because many don't actually like the kameo mode, The online match quality is better than MK1, for some reason on release MK1 was like MK11 never happened (no ping indicator UI in game, not letting you refuse a game or dodge wifi)
Promises and last minute adjustments for cross play to not release on launch.
Stutter issues, the port not being great on performance. So yeah lot of things to not like mate. It's not that deep. I personally like MK1 gameplay more than MK11 and i'm new (started with 11) but the issues with the game are pretty easy to see.

The issues you describe is assuming players just wanna play with CPU and not online

[Primal God]

Originally posted by GeNeRaL:

mk11 is agreed upon as the most annoying and boring fighting game in the series. Casuals who never touch KL or multiplayer like it a lot because there is ♥♥♥♥ ton of things you can grind (single player "content"). ask anyone here who said mk11 is a better game about any advanced techniques in mk11 or in mk1 and they wont be able to say anything

By who? Why did people went back to it if it's so boring? Like a dude above mentioned, this has never happened before. Why is it the most successful MK title?
"Cuz of casuals" answer incoming, casuals will pick the game, play a few hours and then move on to the next one, people that leave MK1 and going back to MK11 ain't causals, casuals have moved on years ago.

Last but not least, if the vast majority enjoys a product (whether they are casuals or not), it means it's good. The 100 esport wannabes that sweat in fighting games for years do not really matter, they aren't affecting sales or general opinion, their perspective is completely different, for them a fighting game has to have a learning curve of 10 years to master to be considered good.

[Primal God]

Originally posted by Nobody important:

MK 11 is infinitely more grindy and you don't even have to play yourself, you can turn on the bot who's gonna unlock almost everything for you. I've 256 hours in it and about 80% of that time was played by AI.

The difference is that in MK11 the grind was actually enjoyable because every tower was different, with different amplifiers etc and the rewards was great for the most part. Each tower had its own thing, (tag assists, rapid, character towers, co-op towers) and you also had the crypt to explore and get more rewards.
In MK1 invasions must be the most tedious thing ever existed. You just press forward, go to a battle, spend less than a minute because it's easy as hell, repeat. In fact I think I spend more time pressing forward than fighting, and the movement limitation ain't helping at all. The rewards in MK1 are laughable at best with the only good rewards being 1-2 season skins.

MK11 had more content for all audiences, multiple multiplayer modes, towers of time, classic towers.
MK11 has more players because it's simply better, people that are going back to it ain't doing it for the single player content only, they probably have gotten the majority of the rewards, they just move back to it because they have more fun.
MK always had the problem of "spamming the same combo" but in MK1 this problem became more apparent, your combo variety depends solely on your cameo fighter, because your base character has like 3 combo strings and 2 aerials (obvious exaggeration) so you end up doing the same thing over and over and over again with the only difference being the cameo attacks.
And before you come at me with the typical (MK11 had the same combos as well) yes and no. Like I said MK always had that problem, the thing is that in MK11 the player can get more creative because the combat is more grounded, you play throws, zone, interactables, krushing blows that may lead to combos etc, you do not rely on a single button sidekick to extend your combo a few hits.

EDIT: The bot argument is kinda flawed, noone goes back to a game to NOT PLAY it.

[Primal God]

Also to add more salt to the wound, even though MK1 is a faster game than MK11, it feels slower due to how long the animations of each string take, it doesn't have the best pace. MK11 is slower but consistent.

EDIT: I won't even discuss how lame the fatalities, brutalities and victory poses are.
"General Shao wins" *procceeds to show the same pose with a sidekick next to him lmao*
Like, cameos are so irrelevant they won't even inlcude their contribution in victory.

[Cypris Melaenis]

Originally posted by Projekt34 Demogorgon:

Originally posted by Nobody important:

MK 11 is infinitely more grindy and you don't even have to play yourself, you can turn on the bot who's gonna unlock almost everything for you. I've 256 hours in it and about 80% of that time was played by AI.

The difference is that in MK11 the grind was actually enjoyable because every tower was different, with different amplifiers etc and the rewards was great for the most part. Each tower had its own thing, (tag assists, rapid, character towers, co-op towers) and you also had the crypt to explore and get more rewards.
In MK1 invasions must be the most tedious thing ever existed. You just press forward, go to a battle, spend less than a minute because it's easy as hell, repeat. In fact I think I spend more time pressing forward than fighting, and the movement limitation ain't helping at all. The rewards in MK1 are laughable at best with the only good rewards being 1-2 season skins.

MK11 had more content for all audiences, multiple multiplayer modes, towers of time, classic towers.
MK11 has more players because it's simply better, people that are going back to it ain't doing it for the single player content only, they probably have gotten the majority of the rewards, they just move back to it because they have more fun.
MK always had the problem of "spamming the same combo" but in MK1 this problem became more apparent, your combo variety depends solely on your cameo fighter, because your base character has like 3 combo strings and 2 aerials (obvious exaggeration) so you end up doing the same thing over and over and over again with the only difference being the cameo attacks.
And before you come at me with the typical (MK11 had the same combos as well) yes and no. Like I said MK always had that problem, the thing is that in MK11 the player can get more creative because the combat is more grounded, you play throws, zone, interactables, krushing blows that may lead to combos etc, you do not rely on a single button sidekick to extend your combo a few hits.

EDIT: The bot argument is kinda flawed, noone goes back to a game to NOT PLAY it.

Originally posted by Projekt34 Demogorgon:

Also to add more salt to the wound, even though MK1 is a faster game than MK11, it feels slower due to how long the animations of each string take, it doesn't have the best pace. MK11 is slower but consistent.

EDIT: I won't even discuss how lame the fatalities, brutalities and victory poses are.
"General Shao wins" *procceeds to show the same pose with a sidekick next to him lmao*
Like, cameos are so irrelevant they won't even inlcude their contribution in victory.

You actually bring great points. I suppose I was wrong to assume that everyone was like me (I do actually enjoy bot fights, lol). Sorry not gonna answer in the same volume as you did. But you're right, MK11 indeed has more content. And if the player has time and desire to play for 500+ hours he/she'll be able to do that and there still will be some content left to unlock. I guess I was kinda oversaturated with MK11. In my library it is a game with the most played time which I find to be ridiculous. I've bought MK11 only in eeehh.. I think it was october 2022 and 350+ hours to me is mind blowing. I've other games on Steam that I wanna try out you know, haha. But yes, to people who can dedicate themselves to one game I totally agree that MK11 is better overall. I guess it was foolish on my part to assume that everyone was like me. And nope, not gonna say anything about combat, lol. I am as casual as it gets, balance change, strategies, combos etc I don't give a damn about those. Anyway, as I've said you and some guys above have brought up some great points about the game and, yeah, I guess not everyone was like me. That's probably gonna sound strange, but the absurd grind and jinsei were really major negatives for me. Especially jinsei cause' I am a solo player and constantly changing it for each variation for every character have made my blood boil. Customization was better in MK11 overall but jinsei were absolute ass, unless you're into that kinky stuff. And yeah, intros, intro dialogues and victories poses, or should I say lack of those were a major letdown in MK1 for me. But I do agree though, if I was playing MK11 since 2019 I would probably have 900+ hours in it. Shame I had a potato rig back then.

P.S. The main idea of the topic was that if the completionist/collector type of player would want to 100% the game (not only steam achievements but all in-game content as well) then he/she will need an absurd amount of time to accomplish that. Mistake on my part was to assume that most players have this sort of mind set.