Why is the playerbase so low?

[Recase]

I love this game so much, but I actually stopped playing because of the low playerbase, is there a reason why not many people play ? it is usually below (1k players)

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

They´re quite a lot of reasons for that :
1. Early Access game.
2. Generally, ressources heavy game. (Partially due to it´s EA state).
3. Not all games/minigames available (EA again).

[Trétoile]

Before both the confinement and the arcade update the ammount of players online rarely reached 400 from memory.

[PrincessMolestia]

It's usually low due to it being EA and mostly new players or loyal players are the ones usually on the majority of the time. If a really large update releases people flock to TU and the playerbase skyrockets to where all the servers are full, but otherwise only a couple of servers are full and the others are empty. Doesn't help the game isn't too optimized so the larger population servers get framerate issues or crashes, while the others are people avoiding the massive crowds.

[Mogul]

-Early Access (needing more stuff to justify price tag)
-Paywall ($15 for normal price, $12 for Steam sales). While I say it's worth it in its current state, some players might be a little hesitated on buying it due to it being EA
-Not enough marketing
-Players only come when there's a new update to check out
-Lag, crashes, bugs, exploits, driver support issues, again all follows under it being EA

[PuiTin]

Honestly, I think Tower Unite has poor player retention rate. The dev studio should focus more in figuring out better player retention instead of pumping out more mini games at launch.

All I know about Tower Unite is just for people to have very casual fun. There is no sense of real progression in the plaza, the condos are unique but the amount of activities within condos are pretty restricted. The resources in game are too plentiful to have any meaningful progression.

[Ixzine]

Tower Unite MAY lack a feeling of addictive completeness...
• Some of the arcade machines have such low payouts, options feel limited in the arcade atm.
• There are very few Game Worlds and they boot you back to the main menu after every match.
• Condos can't be constructed by multiple people, limiting the sandbox potential of them.
• Virus, Laser Tag, Zombie Survival, and some other activities feel extra WIP.

BUT, Tower Unite is absolutely priced fairly, with semi-frequent sales to boot. No microtransactions means no manipulation, no whalebait, no sunk cost fallacy, and no tarnishing of the game's spirit. They could TOTALLY tarnish the spirit of the game and rush development to get more profits and bolster the concurrent playerbase size, but, like... I hope they don't? Besides, I've seen more than one game crash and burn for that reason.

A small dev team developing a big, ambitious project slowly is Early Access done right.

Also, interacting with other people in VRChat is, like, the main point of that game, so of course it's going to be a good "social game." But because of its features, TU is going to attract plenty of people, like me, who play it while watching or listening to Youtube, or primarily as a party game for an established friend group, and thus won't interact with strangers extensively. I love it!

[Lucas@NBATV]

Early Access, $20 if not on sale (there is no microtransactions however), very small dev team.