Player numbers for The Finals are actually very high

[VouZ_nel]

People constantly complain about The Finals losing 95% of its playerbase in 2 months, but it was bound to happen from the very start. It's a once in a lifetime miracle we ever got to 250 000 players online. For me, it's impressive this game's daily peak is higher than 5000. I'm not saying I'm a marketing genius or Einstein of game design, there are people a thousand times smarter than me with years of experience in the industry. But I'm sorry, it's just so easy to predict when a multiplayer shooter is gonna die. Around 90% of the time, it's just these 2/3 questions - "do players have a lot of mobility, especially vertical?" and "is the game unique? if yes, is it too different from other shooters?". If the answer to all of these is "yes", the game is pretty much dead on arrival. As you might have noticed, The Finals checks all of these boxes. I personally love this type of games, but they're almost always destined to fail. You can call me a liar or say it's just a confirmation bias, but this is the list of titles I predicted were going to flop or die in a matter of months:

Splitgate - Lawbreakers - Quantum League - Evolve - Shatterline - Hyperscape - Boundary - Quake Champions - Lemnis Gate - Titanfall 2* - Tribes 3: Rivals - Battleborn... and probably a few others

*I know Titanfall 2 is technically not dead, I'm still playing it, but often it takes ages to find a match.

When I've watched a few videos on The Finals back in the early 2023, I thought to myself "wow it looks amazing, but it's way too fast and chaotic for an average player, another title dead on arrival". You can imagine my shock when it reached 250 000 Steam players in December, I've never been this wrong about a game before. But a few months have passed and yeah, it all makes sense now. I can assure you, we're never ever going back to even 1/4th of the initial playercount. We might get some influx of players whenever a new season drops, but aside from that, the playerbase is only gonna get smaller and smaller. The Finals is great, but it's just way too fast paced, random, chaotic and confusing for an average player. The fact that this game is even alive is honestly impressive.

[Tranquility]

I agree

[Anergy]

Why treat this game just like another pointless shooter? I suggest all shooter fans to go play cs, especially cheaters. There are so many time-tested shooters.

This game was new and fun in the beginning, but now it's ruined thanks to wishlists from fans of standard shooters who cried and asked to nerf everything and monotonous meta worshipers.

A lot of people are leaving because nerfs are killing the uniqueness of the game, and also because today you can meet an obvious cheater again who was reported 2 weeks ago, but no action was taken.

[IRL SCAV]

on top of that console player base numbers are not included which are usually higher than PC playerbase numbers.

[fahadew]

I played over 500 hours in the finals, i dont consider my self a gamer this my first time spent over 45 hour in a game , RE4R is 42 hours, so am i a smart gamer or average? i know every detail in the finals now, its genius game but its not hard at all! why cod players say its hard? i find cod hard and not fun at all, after the final beta end i download every other online title , nothing compare to the finals , i see myself having fun in the finals even if i die , it feels great and challenging without stress, i really dont what to do if this game gone, maybe this is my best game i played in my life

[Dhomochevsky]

only kids cares about numbers, mate. grow up.

[VouZ_nel]

Originally posted by Dhomochevsky:

only kids cares about numbers, mate. grow up.

you do realize that once the numbers dip very low, developers stop supporting their games right? if nothing changes and it keeps bleeding players at this rate, they're gonna drop it in less than a year

[Nunk]

The first six month are make-or-break for multiplayer shooters. If the playerbase doesn't stabilize or grow in this approximate six month window after launch, it's over.

Halo Infinite, Battlebit, Titanfall 2, and Battlefield 2042 bled player numbers quickly and permanently in a short period of time. The Finals is currently following that trend.

Successful multiplayer games - Apex, R6 Siege, Hunt - they lose a percentage of players from launch, as is natural, but numbers stabilized and the community grew from the first year.

It shows that there's serious fundamental issues with The Finals. Balancing is incredibly poor at all skill levels, and Cashout is a horrible gamemode for either casual or competitive play.

[DjRobei]

I think cheating ruins almost every shooter game. For example, Call of Duty is a amazing game but nobody will hardly touch it now with all the one hit kill cheaters in their lobbies. What can you really do or say about it? Nothing as long as hacks are created and sold on the internet. The solution isn't in just creating anti-hack software for each game, An anti-cheat internet traffic bot that takes down these sites would stop the root of the problem. I am sure that these hacks are not even safe. Probably there is hidden code in the software that steals your personal information. Its not worth the risk downloading a cheat to get leverage just because you want to troll the fun from the game.

[Nisse]

Originally posted by Dhomochevsky:

only kids cares about numbers, mate. grow up.

Math and economics clearly isn't your strong suit.

[VouZ_nel]

Originally posted by dAsh:

You're very out of touch to be honest. marketing, investors will very much disagree with your statement. Game company needs to make money. Gamers aren't "complaining" they're frustrated they've been abandoned and on the original concept the game had and then turned 180 degree on their direction turning it into competitive styled direction by:
=nerfing all the weapons
=trying to "balance" it
=not solving bugs/design flaws (1v3, 2v3 etc)
=putting cheaters as low prioritise (should've solved this before balance)
=desperate decisions (grinding tactics, free vs paid)

if you take No. of beta test they went though and the amount of interest it generated on social channels such as Youtube, it was a huge interest and success thus the green light to go ahead pushing for 1.0. It's never is about lack of exposure. From 2023 to 2024, the player no has dropped significantly and player base shifted towards hardcore. result so far is just appalling whether you agree with it or not. It's a fact. look at how many people signed petition on the no cheater post. look at how less people discussing this game on social media, look how divided players are about opinions for weapon nerfs and how many left. It goes without saying. player base aren't rooting enough and keep coming back for the game at least.

Marketing budget are around about 20% of their revenue, Why do you think they pushing skin so hard? it's because that's how they make money and by sucking new player's money to keep them running. otherwise this game could go finish the next day if player are done spending or lack of marketing budget to attract new blood. But if the product is bad, no marketing can save it at the end of the day. Just because you think there's a USP (unique selling point) or there isn't one doesn't guarantee a company's success or failure. So many start-up go burst. Did they not have an original idea? They do but no that's not enough.

But cheaters are in all games. not just the finals. why do finals seems to suffer the most and complained the most? It's because its a competitive game now. no longer fun or smashing thigns up. People taking it more seriously and less tolerant to those silly bugs and game design flaws. It's never meant that way but unfortunately they did the change. cheaters back then didn't have an advantages over the original game design. they can still very much easily killed. Now with the all balancing act before even making sure there's no cheaters are a wrong move. Because quickly people lose not because their skills but for all the head shots players who can shoot you inside of your own shield 150m away. You see the problem here? Someone or team got their priories wrong. and that's a big mistake. A game ending one possibly.

You can only improve if you understand and truly have the people in line to solve the problem. no point denying it as it will only get worse. so don't trying to whitewash it. the money talks.

I don't buy it. If I was able to predict both TF and all the other titles I've mentioned dying out way before they even came out, that means there's a pattern. The Finals has pretty much the same amount of issues as every other big title (or even less), but because it's so different, more chaotic and requires a lot more skill, people just drop it. For the first few weeks, every update was great, but the game was still bleeding players.

[VouZ_nel]

Originally posted by dAsh:

Originally posted by VouZ_nel:

I don't buy it. If I was able to predict both TF and all the other titles I've mentioned dying out way before they even came out, that means there's a pattern. The Finals has pretty much the same amount of issues as every other big title (or even less), but because it's so different, more chaotic and requires a lot more skill, people just drop it. For the first few weeks, every update was great, but the game was still bleeding players.

Trying to take out the personal subjective side out of it. It doesn't really matter how you FEEL about this game or other games like team fortures. Different games are different, they're references but not direct comparable games. Not in this case anyway as Valve owns TF title and they are their own publisher. Just look at the available data and facts.

TF = The Finals

Also, all of the things you mentioned don't contradict anything I've said. I just think this game was destined to be niche from the very beginning, no matter what the devs did.

[Bing Chilling]

you're right on one thing ateast. this game isn't for everyone.
alot of people came in thinking it was another apex style game.

then promptly left.
it's also alot harder to run then most games, meaning jimmy potato PC
can't play the game at decent fps, unlike the other shooters on the market atm.
(i consider this a good thing for the most part)

tbh i'm fine with the player numbers where they are atm. The player base
while really whinny, are atleast keeping the game alive.

[Myztkl©-Kev]

Originally posted by VouZ_nel:

Originally posted by Dhomochevsky:

only kids cares about numbers, mate. grow up.

you do realize that once the numbers dip very low, developers stop supporting their games right? if nothing changes and it keeps bleeding players at this rate, they're gonna drop it in less than a year

as long as people are spending money in the store and paying the bills they will support it. They have another game they are developing right now anyways, there's maybe 2 dozen people still working on the finals (at least it feels that way).