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Current playercount is over 80, and peak for the day is over 150. The game is consistently peaking near or above 150 players in any given day, usually slightly higher on weekdays. If you ignore the type of game this is, that sounds low. But that's because Absolver is an indie fighting game, and the primary game mode is 1v1. For smaller-scale team PvP games, you're typically looking at MOBAs and other games whose primary game mode is 5v5, requiring 10 players to fill out a match. Larger scale games, like the current Battle Royale craze, typically require 100 players to fill out a match, and sometimes even more than this.
As a fighting game, even the current 80 players at the time of me typing this is sufficient for 40 full lobbies of players. This is the equivalent of having around 400 concurrent players in a MOBA (not a strong number but enough that nobody questions if it's dead), or in a Battle Royale it's around like having the same number of active matches you'd see with 4000 players. With the daily peak being around 150 players, that's more like 700 players in a typical MOBA (again, not huge but a fairly healthy playerbase), or 7500 players in a Battle Royale.
To compare to the current most successful indie fighting game on Steam, Absolver is consistently sitting a good way above half the game's playerbase. And is one of the only indie fighting games to actually have a consistent playerbase above 20 on Steam. And that's before you factor in that GOG users play on the same servers as Steam, and on release Absolver had a great deal on GOG coming free with a copy of Furi.
I bought the game long ago,wasnt happy with it and refunded it.
Now i thought about buying it again,when it was on sale,and see what has changed.
Kept a eye on the player count on steamcharts,but maybe i just expected too much from the sale.
150 players at max is very low,especially when you take into consideration that the game isnt new anymore(not very old either),the open world aspect,team battles,schools....
Its not a typical fighter,more like a fighting game with some mmo-like aspects added to it.
With 150 players youre bound to meet the same few people all the time,and for newbies and casual players this also means to get stomped by the same few people all the time.
The playerbase may be big enough to find matches without a very long waiting time,but its not nearly big enough to provide a fair matchmaking experience.
Finding a 3vs3 match may be difficult.
Finding a fair 3vs3 match will be even more difficult.
About the game being about 1vs1 fights:
Once a game doesnt have enough players anymore,to easily find matches of ALL categories,its a bad sign.
If absolver was just a regular 1vs1 fighting game where you click on a button to get some instant pvp action....yea,then 150 would be,,ok'',not very good but ok.
Brawlhalla has thousands of players for example,so 150 really isnt that much,indie or not.
I know it might not look that way,but i was really hoping that this game would become more popular,still do.
But from what i experienced(and from what i have been reading on the forum),it looks hopeless.
Once the games playerbase starts to grow each month,instead of getting smaller again after a update arrived,id gladly try it out again.
Not expecting thousands of players here,but at least 500 active players a day,so i know the game really has a future and a chance to grow,instead of just trying to not lose players.
Maybe the pve update will help...
Absolver didn't launch with a 3v3 mode. Officially the 3v3 mode is still in beta testing and not a "live" game mode. It doesn't run well, and doesn't feel complete, which is part of why there are so few players for the mode. The lack of playerbase also limits it, but the fact that it's a beta test version of an unfinished mode in the first place and wasn't core release-day content doesn't help its cause either. The core experience in Absolver is 1v1 combat. That is where the game mechanics work best. That is what the game feels most sensibly designed for. And that is the game mode that is core to the game. It is, at its core, a 1v1 fighting game.
The ranked 1vs1 mode in brawlhalla is very popular,id even say its the most popular mode in the game,so theres that.
About being free and/or a party game....well,as long as it works(it obviously does).
Absolver may be based on 1vs1,but im sure you saw how many people asked for a proper pve mode.
If you offer a open world,schools,coop and 3vs3,its normal that people expect more than just 1vs1,and for this content,the playerbase is just too low.
Whatever the games focus may be,its NOT a 1vs1 game like tekken,for example.
In tekken,people know what to expect and they dont demand too much.
They dont expect to see proper pve or a open world.
But absolver had the chance to be much more than just a duel fighter.
If that was the goal,why even bother to add all the other stuff besides duelling?
Right now,its not much more than a fighting game with a low population,and it has been that way for many months already.
I dont think that the devs expected just 150 daily players when developing this game,or that they would have developed it at all,if they knew it,even skullgirls has a better population,and the game is a few years older than absolver.
Im not saying screw absolver,im just saying,open your eyes.
The game is definatly in a very bad state,150 players....thats nothing compared to the hype and the expectations that people had before absolver launched.
The playerbase is too low for 3-player co-op in the open world? Ummm... what? No it isn't.
And your point here, much as it isn't relevant to the core design of the gamebeing about the 1v1 fighting game aspect, only reinforces the game's position. There's been major calls for the PvE to be expanded on because of the popularity. Guess what? The devs have listened and are working on a major PvE expansion right now. If that lives up to their promises of being much more replayable, and if they follow through on the promises of improving enemy AI as well, there's going to be a big increase in the playerbase and the game will be able to KEEP those players active this time.
You say "even skullgirls" like Skullgirls isn't currently the SINGLE BIGGEST INDIE FIGHTING GAME ON PC. Because it is. Go looking. Check for ACTUAL fighting games that are ACTUALLY fighting games not brawler/party games, and that will come out at the top of the list. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
The game is, if you actually know what you're looking at, in a pretty healthy and stable position for its genre and for the original intent of the developrs. For the release HYPE (much of which was built on pre-release streamers directly LYING to their viewers), sure, it falls short. But that's literally because people OTHER THAN THE DEVS lied to their fans to increase the hype train. To the point that a small indie fighting game literally had peak concurrent playercounts within 100 of the highest figures the latest Tekken game reached during a free weekend. You can't realistically expect ANY indie game to be hitting those kind of numbers coming out of the gate. Especially not a niche product like this one which got overhyped, dishonestly, through no fault of the devs or publishers, by people they made the mistake of trusting with their marketing.
I saw streamers literally telling the devs and publishers they were wrong while they were quoting the marketing material the streamer had been given word-for-word in the stream chat. Having spent a month prior to the pre-release streams going live, researching the game and learning things about the beta that happened which even many of the beta players didn't know, I was actively educating people in streams and frequently had streamers joining in to try and shut me down while I was actively trying to downplay the things they were objectively lying about with no information on which to base their claims.
Also, there have been consistent and repeated calls for the devs NOT to keep the 3v3 mode since it turns into a cluster of stupid much of the time anyway and a 2v2 game mode would be much more appealing. They haven't done that, but I hope they consider it very seriously because having a 2v2 mode would be more in line with the core game experience, and I think would be far easier and more sensible to balance gameplay around than having to divide focus between 1v1 and 3v3 modes with such different requirements.
If you brought your friends with you,ofcourse you will ALWAYS have someone to play with,no matter the game or the game mode,as long as you just bring enough people with you,but thats obvious.
The playerbase will be split into people who want to train solo,people who play 3vs3,people who are afk or talking to someone,people who duel,people who want to do pve stuff together.....
On a bad day,where only 80-100 people are playing,or even less,you may find this difficult.
Constantly meeting new people in a online game is exciting for me,and i guess also for others.
I said,,even skullgirls'',because its already a few years old,has not the best graphics,not any really exciting and fresh features i could mention,nor was it hyped like absolver was.
Absolver was seen as something close to a,,better for honor'' or,,a cousin of dark souls''.
It has nice graphics,a open world,a interesting combat system,you can make your own deck and so on......absolver should have crushed skullgirls,but nope,didnt happen.
Thats what i mean when i said the devs surely didnt expect to just have 150 active players each day.
About the last part of your post....
Look,i really dont know what to tell you.
Youre seriously convienced that 150 players count as a,,pretty healthy and stable position''.
150 isnt even the,,average''ammount of people playing at the same time.
Duels may be the core of the game,but its not the only aspect of the game,its not the,,traditional''1vs1 FG,no matter how often you mention duels.
And even if:for such a nice looking game(well,it is,putting all problems aside for a moment),150 is very low,we are not talking about some cheap 2D fighter where you just press play and have your duels,no,absolver had a lot of potential,potential to have even thousands of players.
If we would be talking about fantasy strike,id say ok,150 isnt so bad(they expected much more,but meh,doesnt belong here....)
But for absolver?
You made your position very clear,youre going to defend the game,no matter what i say.
I measure absolvers success based on the potential that the game had and the work that was put into the process of making it,along with the other features BESIDES duelling,that it offers.
PS:I know about the pve update,thats why i mentioned it before.But for now,i consider absolver to be dead,or well,on life support.
Wouldnt even surprise me if the game gets shutdown next year,to be honest,or if no more updates arrive.
Considering that literally every friend I had with interest in Absolver before release is playing on PS4, and I now have literally more than 100 friends who play Absolver, no. I meet people playing the game, and make friends with them in-game, by greeting them and sending them friend requests, and depending on the way we met, complimenting or giving advice once we have an open line of communication beyond the in-game emotes.
For 3v3, which is a beta test of an unfinished mode which doesn't really feel like it fits the core gameplay and which a lot of players openly say they'd rather see replaced with a 2v2 or other unrelated mode, sure. For open world I wander the game world, on a low-volume server, often outside of peak hours for the server, and still frequently run into players and help them out. Or pick quick casual fights with them then help them out. Or let them pick fights with me and see what happens.
It was "seen as" something close to For Honor. In many ways it IS better than For Honor at what it does. It isn't trying to BE For Honor in any way (EDIT: both can be argued to be aiming at a more casual sector of the fighting game market in a way, but both approach that market VERY differently, and imo Absolver does the better job of it). It was "seen as" a Dark Souls style game by many people because it was mis-advertised that way by a lot of streamers leading up to release. That misleading advertising drew in a HUGE number of non-fans who had no interest in what the game had been developed as originally, but who bought the game on (dishonest but not from the devs) promises. The devs never saw the game getting the crazy release-day peak numbers. The sales figures for Absolver on release literally beat every previous game Devolver had published up to that point. THAT was unexpected. Settling at what can reasonably be seen as a valid high end of normal for an indie PC fighting game is definitely not something anyone should be surprised by.
The ONLY reasons ANYONE is acting like this is at all abnormal are:
1. People judge all games instinctively by the same standard, and the current standard is Battle Royale games which typically target the 100-ish player range.
2. Absolver's peak at release was ludicrously high for what it is, so people are expecting it to magically jump back to that in spite of the reasons behind that ludicrous playercount.
No, it's not the average. But the average is only around 30 players less than Skullgirls. And currently, Skullgirls is THE indie fighting game on Steam. Of any game in the market that's actually targeting the same demographic (which, while Absolver's PvE update hasn't shown up yet, it still is targeting), Skullgirls is the one with the LARGEST and MOST CONSISTENT playerbase outside of the big name AAA titles.
It is the single biggest game Absolver can point to as direct competition, and in the genre and scale, Absolver is a VERY close second with nothing remotely close behind it.
Core game modes on release: A story mode that can, by a skilled player who picks it up day one with no experience but a bit of research and a little help along the way, be finished in under 2 hours. Speedruns come in - from a fresh character but with an experienced player - under 30 minutes. The only other mode is the primary focus of the game - PvP duels. On release, that was THE ENTIRE GAME. A world you can literally run through in 30 minutes and see EVERYTHING, comprising a story mode that leads you from boss fight to boss fight with little actual "story" stringing the story together, and PvP which is exclusively built around 1v1 combat.
It is, absolutely, and undeniably, a fighting game at its core.
As long as your arguments continue to NOT counter the points I'm making, I'm going to keep explaining why you are objectively wrong in thinking Absolver is dead or even close to it. As long as Absolver is alive, I'm going to keep saying it's very much alive. In the short time where it was actually sitting well below 100 players as the peak daily playercount, I was conceding that it was struggling to maintain a playerbase - because it WAS. While the playerbase is remaining healthy like it is now, I will defend that, for what it is, Absolver's playerbase is healthy.
It would shock me if the PvE update - which is long-hoped-for by many existing owners and which there's evidence ot a big marketing plan coming with it - doesn't massively revitalise the community. It would shock me even more if, even assuming it DOESN'T go crazy with the update, the game gets shut down before 2020.
I did counter them,its just not what you want to hear.
No offense,but i was only reading a small part of your latest post,i dont feel like having a back and forth-like discussion here that will not convience me,and neither you.
You can continue to believe what you want.
150 players is a very low playerbase,no matter the genre,unless we talk about a very poorly made flash game or something similiar.
The fact that other fighting games might have less than 150,doesnt change that,but i already told you why i think that absolver is not a typical fighing game anyway.
I see potential in this game,150 players dont do this potential justice,and its not what i consider to be a healthy playerbase for a game like this,thats my oppinion.
The moment you start building upon that is when we start reaching the multiple hundreds and thousands, 1-2k for peak hours is usually a healthy player base for indie in the 4v4 and 5v5 range, but a devoted fan base of 100+ will at least keep the game going till it's devs can do something to make it grow.
The fact that almost every fighting game including the most successful ones outside of the big AAA titles has less than Absolver's playerbase is a pretty good sign you're wrong. But anyway...
I see potential for this game to have a better playerbase. I see potential for a larger playerbase to support the game being more than just the fighting game it's currently succeeding at being. And I see a lot of potential for the PvE update to be a MAJOR step in the right direction.
Or it simply means that most fighting games outside the big AAA titles dont attract a lot of players so that the playerbase stays small,like absolvers,you can see it from multiple perspectives ;)
When they function consistently with playerbases in that range, and have players happy to enjoy the amount of variety that level of playerbase offers, it indicates that such a level IS still success FOR THE GENRE. That doesn't negate the fact that Absolver has potential to be more, and is looking like it's heading in the right direction to realise that potential. I hope it succeeds.