So the game died.... again?

[Silamon]

Recent reviews back up to mixed and still rising, player counts going back up again on steam charts....

It's almost like the big stink was just another big stink from salty players that will keep playing anyway.

Again. Here's to 7 more years of DBD.

[AsianGirlLover]

Yup, the game is fine. Plenty of people who relied on Dead Hard, infinite heals, and gen kick perks are mad. Everyone else adapted and is having fun.

[Paulo Ramos]

You just forgot we have a new rift so players that only play during events are back and many can get the rift from free if they have amazon prime.
The game does not have more players then back in 2019-2021 period. It is dying but very slowly. In a couple of years we will get a DBD 2 if it stays this way.
It is not a coincidence the game will get a movie/series. They want to bring new players because right now the game is not newbie friendly and lost many veteran players.

[KreamKorn]

Some of the changes were bonehead moves from the devs. The new meta is to camp and tunnel so that's fun lol. People have a right to be upset honestly, but yea most people wont quit they will just complain.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Paulo Ramos:

You just forgot we have a new rift so players that only play during events are back and many can get the rift from free if they have amazon prime.
The game does not have more players then back in 2019-2021 period. It is dying but very slowly. In a couple of years we will get a DBD 2 if it stays this way.
It is not a coincidence the game will get a movie/series. They want to bring new players because right now the game is not newbie friendly and lost many veteran players.

Actually in 2019 the yearly average playerbase was around 20k concurrent users, 2020 was around 34k average, 2021 44k, 2022 was around 36k, and 2023 has been around 32k.

The average for this month is at 29k, but the peaks for the last week have been 30-40k.


https://steamcharts.com/app/381210#1m

And those are only steam numbers, which is a minority of the playerbase at this point.

Seems pretty consistent to me hoss. The only time it was higher for most of the year was when RE dlcs were coming out, which was obviously a much larger draw than usual.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by KreamKorn:

Some of the changes were bonehead moves from the devs. The new meta is to camp and tunnel so that's fun lol. People have a right to be upset honestly, but yea most people wont quit they will just complain.

I think complaining about things you don't like is fine. But trying to claim the game is going to die over an update like the one we got... no way. Not even close. The collective might of all the mad survivors couldn't keep the recent reviews under mixed for more than a week before it started going back up.

Tunneling and camping is never going to go away. The only thing that could get rid of it at this point would be the complete removal of hooks and hook states... Just be glad real face camping is gone. Folks complaining about face camps now don't even know what it was like.

The same complaints were common when I played the game in 2017/2018 when survivors were *much* stronger than killers. I remember people saying Bloodlust was going to kill the game because behaviour was trying to make killer easy mode....

[￭ Yuri ￭]

As I said at the time of the last ptb, the game would not die, at least not so soon (even if they keep the clueless/no sense changes, like the base-kit heal), but that would gradually make the play-time and the fun of the game decrease for the players that had already invested in the game, but it also wouldn't keep newer players in the game, with steamcharts numbers keeping more or less the same proportions.

But one thing is pretty obvious, even with the high kill-rates, the devs don't hold back when it comes to fixing game design flaws/stress points regarding killers in recent years, even if that means indirect buffs regarding already established top tier killers.

The same does not apply to survivors who in 6 years complain about the same design flaws in relation to camp, slug and tunnel, which remained abused even with nerfs and buffs in both roles.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by ￭ Yuri ￭:

As I said at the time of the last ptb, the game would not die, at least not so soon (even if they keep the clueless/no sense changes, like heal one), but that would gradually make the play-time and the fun of the game decrease for the players that had already invested in the game, but it also wouldn't keep newer players in the game, with steamcharts numbers keeping more or less the same proportions.

But one thing is pretty obvious, even with the high kill-rates, the devs don't hold back when it comes to fixing game design flaws/stress points regarding killers in recent years, even if that means indirect buffs regarding already established top tier killers.

The same does not apply to survivors who in 6 years complain about the same design flaws in relation to camp, slug and tunnel, which remained abused even with nerfs and buffs in both roles.

I mean... Behaviour has tried adding penalties for camping, it just won't work as long as hooks and hook states are a thing that can be taken advantage of.

[￭ Yuri ￭]

Originally posted by Silamon:

Originally posted by ￭ Yuri ￭:

As I said at the time of the last ptb, the game would not die, at least not so soon (even if they keep the clueless/no sense changes, like heal one), but that would gradually make the play-time and the fun of the game decrease for the players that had already invested in the game, but it also wouldn't keep newer players in the game, with steamcharts numbers keeping more or less the same proportions.

But one thing is pretty obvious, even with the high kill-rates, the devs don't hold back when it comes to fixing game design flaws/stress points regarding killers in recent years, even if that means indirect buffs regarding already established top tier killers.

The same does not apply to survivors who in 6 years complain about the same design flaws in relation to camp, slug and tunnel, which remained abused even with nerfs and buffs in both roles.

I mean... Behaviour has tried adding penalties for camping, it just won't work as long as hooks and hook states are a thing that can be taken advantage of.

yes, but i found out recently they were already working on an anti-camp tool, and it will probably be either some kind of debuff (regarding points, score, etc) or some base-kit perk like kindred, that would just be band-aids.

[Paulo Ramos]

Originally posted by Silamon:

Originally posted by Paulo Ramos:

You just forgot we have a new rift so players that only play during events are back and many can get the rift from free if they have amazon prime.
The game does not have more players then back in 2019-2021 period. It is dying but very slowly. In a couple of years we will get a DBD 2 if it stays this way.
It is not a coincidence the game will get a movie/series. They want to bring new players because right now the game is not newbie friendly and lost many veteran players.

Actually in 2019 the yearly average playerbase was around 20k concurrent users, 2020 was around 34k average, 2021 44k, 2022 was around 36k, and 2023 has been around 32k.

The average for this month is at 29k, but the peaks for the last week have been 30-40k.


https://steamcharts.com/app/381210#1m

And those are only steam numbers, which is a minority of the playerbase at this point.

Seems pretty consistent to me hoss. The only time it was higher for most of the year was when RE dlcs were coming out, which was obviously a much larger draw than usual.

The game only increased the number of players until 2021 after the MMR implementation. This is showed in the charts: After 4 years getting more players the game started to lose.
Just look at the numbers in red, how frequent they are and the average before and after.
We have a new rift, if the numbers are not above the average non event months then it is a clear problem specially with the free pass from Amazon.
Many playeras are from console and EPIC store but many got it for free at EPIC and are just new players. The complains about MMR are a result of just new players in the game being solo and veterans being mostly SWF.

[Sanest Black Noir Fanatic]

Now I'm definitely not one of these crybabies who claim DbD will die anytime soon but if the two worst DLCs in DbD history releasing back to back (Knight and Skull Merchant) don't send some alarming signals your way idk what to tell you

[Mors_Indecepta]

The changes proposed would have been bad, but the people who freaked out just because the devs tried something on the PTR...I truly don't understand them.
If the changes had made it to live, I could understand there being something of a freakout, but people literally started review-bombing the game before the changes had even hit the PTR.

All that, and the game is still fine. I think the balance aspects of the last patch were slightly bad for the game, overall, but definitely not the apocalyptic event that it was made out to be.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Paulo Ramos:

Originally posted by Silamon:

Actually in 2019 the yearly average playerbase was around 20k concurrent users, 2020 was around 34k average, 2021 44k, 2022 was around 36k, and 2023 has been around 32k.

The average for this month is at 29k, but the peaks for the last week have been 30-40k.


https://steamcharts.com/app/381210#1m

And those are only steam numbers, which is a minority of the playerbase at this point.

Seems pretty consistent to me hoss. The only time it was higher for most of the year was when RE dlcs were coming out, which was obviously a much larger draw than usual.

The game only increased the number of players until 2021 after the MMR implementation. This is showed in the charts: After 4 years getting more players the game started to lose.
Just look at the numbers in red, how frequent they are and the average before and after.
We have a new rift, if the numbers are not above the average non event months then it is a clear problem specially with the free pass from Amazon.
Many playeras are from console and EPIC store but many got it for free at EPIC and are just new players. The complains about MMR are a result of just new players in the game being solo and veterans being mostly SWF.

It has stayed consistently around 30-35k mark for the last 3 years, with a big influx in 2021 and a smaller one in 2022 thanks to RE chapters. The drop in numbers after those chapters were the folks that joined for RE leaving...

There was also a large number in 2022 that came to try one of the largest meta shakeups in the game's history with 6.1. Then it started dropping again when folks saw it's still the same game.

The months after RE chapter got announced and released had a huge explosion of growth then a steady decline after the release. Is that so hard to understand?

[￭ Yuri ￭]

Originally posted by TheMetalOne:

The changes proposed would have been bad, but the people who freaked out just because the devs tried something on the PTR...I truly don't understand them.
If the changes had made it to live, I could understand there being something of a freakout, but people literally started review-bombing the game before the changes had even hit the PTR.

All that, and the game is still fine. I think the balance aspects of the last patch were slightly bad for the game, overall, but definitely not the apocalyptic event that it was made out to be.

it's due to bhvr's history of ignoring some feedback (especially on the main forum, listening to only a few people), i highly doubt they would have reversed some meaningless changes like base-kit heal and billy addon if the people hadn't been protesting and be noise, honestly (but keeping legitimized constructive criticism, even if negative)

[Sluzzy]

You forgot they also had a huge sale lately which has not stopped the bleeding. It's not possible for new players to play so they'll be gone soon.

Compare to Left 4 Dead 2, a game with a fraction of the content. No updates in over a decade, has always had a steady player base, and has held an "overwhelmingly positive" rating.

Really shows that DBD is dying due to dev incompetence.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Sluzzy:

You forgot they also had a huge sale lately which has not stopped the bleeding. It's not possible for new players to play so they'll be gone soon.

Compare to Left 4 Dead 2, a game with a fraction of the content. No updates in over a decade, has always had a steady player base, and has held an "overwhelmingly positive" rating.

Really shows that DBD is dying due to dev incompetence.

I 100% believe the game will be back to 40k+ concurrent averages the next time they release a big licensed killer.

Left 4 dead 2 is kept alive with modding and it is not a competitive game, not quite sure how it is relevant.