Player count is down 66% from launch, rapid disastrous decline

[JingleBerry]

On launch day, this game had 93,305 players at its peak on Steam. The last peak was 31,460 players.

https://steamcharts.com/app/976730#All

So 61,845 players, 66% of the initial players, no longer have interest in playing. They were hyped on launch day for Halo finally coming to PC, and have now just disappeared. Why is this? What is 343 doing about this? I can name a few ideas for why this is possibly happening, but I will hold back for now.

[Joe]

Автор сообщения: WALL MIGHT

Автор сообщения: Snowberry

On launch day, this game had 93,305 players at its peak on Steam. The last peak was 31,460 players.

https://steamcharts.com/app/976730#All

So 61,845 players, 66% of the initial players, no longer have interest in playing. They were hyped on launch day for Halo finally coming to PC, and have now just disappeared. Why is this? What is 343 doing about this? I can name a few ideas for why this is possibly happening, but I will hold back for now.

Because there's no forge/custom games browser. No theater, no fileshare, nothing. Reach's best feature was its customs and the way the menu is set up makes playing customs unbearable. Bring back forge, bring back "Stay with team" bring back hands free voice chat and this game will improve.

this

[Despara]

Автор сообщения: Snowberry

Автор сообщения: Michael Ross

people have jobs, go to school, and its a weekday
not only that but this is only counting steam players not gamepass/windows users!
not many games keep launch peaks and even when the other halo's come out it will jump up again popularity wise but will fall back down again

So if everyone has jobs and school, we need to apply that when comparing to other game populations as well. Why do some game launches only trend in a positive direction, if people still have jobs and go to school? Yes, it is currently a weekday. That does not have anything to do with why the player count has dropped 66% over many days.

If players look at the steamcharts they'll see that even during the past XP event weekend the player count barely broke 35k. During a double weekend event. If that's not indicative of a decline in player pop I don't know what is.

[Sorso]

Only people I can find in multiplayer are people playing grifball with legendary helmet...

[Sova6]

This is not a rapid disastrous decline. 66% drop in concurrent player counts is actually pretty normal. 30k concurrent players is not a small amount of people either, that's a very healthy player count for a weekday.

There was hype leading up to the release of Reach on PC. People were excited just like they would be for a brand new game. You can't expect a game to maintain peak numbers because no game has ever done that.

Lets stop pretending the hype cycle doesn't exist.

[puppet74]

Lets face it , People love halo, but they played it so many times before. You cant expect a 10 plus year old game to be keeping top online numbers without drops, its going to drop.
Also as many said most of the community things are not in yet. I played the game a good 30 hours , but i'm kinda done now. So are my friends. Still we are all big forge people and enjoy making race tracks and messing about in custom games. So once that's here i'm sure the numbers will peek again for awhile.

Lets also not forget that a Master chief halo isn't out yet. Im sure the numbers will peek each time a new halo comes out, then go down again. Too repeat you cant expect an old franchise to keep high numbers forever. Tbh numbers are really not that important as long as you can get games fast enough. They only really matter on launch of a new game too see if mp is worth you're time.

[Dia Shakes]

Bro this happens to literally every game ever that releases, the casual audience will always drop off in the first two weeks.

[Cosmonaut Cartilag]

Автор сообщения: Dia_Haze

Bro this happens to literally every game ever that releases, the casual audience will always drop off in the first two weeks.

Incorrect. I think we all need to compile a list of grievances to post on the forums for 343 to read and then everyone should post our manifesto informed list on improving the experience for long and short term player retention and fun.

[BigBallinChester]

Автор сообщения: Takahashi

Because we are all waiting for the best Halo, i mean Halo 3.

Reach is good but drm spam is killing the game.

This should be the answer to the thread. We are all waiting for the other Halos. I just play firefight and some campaign, nothing much till 3 comes out

[CloudedByKatana]

You have to think of it this way, on launch day there will be a ton of people playing at the same time because everyone wants to try out the game as soon as possible. But after launch day, you won't be having everyone playing at the same time, they'll play when they have the time. It's just how it goes down, its not a "decline" in the player base, its just people not being logged on at the same time as others.

[Blyatman]

Автор сообщения: WALL MIGHT

Автор сообщения: Snowberry

On launch day, this game had 93,305 players at its peak on Steam. The last peak was 31,460 players.

https://steamcharts.com/app/976730#All

So 61,845 players, 66% of the initial players, no longer have interest in playing. They were hyped on launch day for Halo finally coming to PC, and have now just disappeared. Why is this? What is 343 doing about this? I can name a few ideas for why this is possibly happening, but I will hold back for now.

Because there's no forge/custom games browser. No theater, no fileshare, nothing. Reach's best feature was its customs and the way the menu is set up makes playing customs unbearable. Bring back forge, bring back "Stay with team" bring back hands free voice chat and this game will improve.

custom games were non-existent in reach, what are you on about? Reach's claim to fame was invasion.

[The Reality]

Автор сообщения: RapidFireReaper

Aim assist killed this game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ1wgBovU4c

People have really weird definitions of what a dead game is

[Testament]

25k Players concurrently is still pretty good.
Launch windows will always have way more players, that's just how they are.

[Tλxolotl]

I mean...Im used to playing Halo 2 Project cartographer with a low playercount so im not bothered by this at all.

[Cosmonaut Cartilag]

Автор сообщения: young_tax_return1

I mean...Im used to playing Halo 2 Project cartographer with a low playercount so im not bothered by this at all.

Youre fine playing halo 2 without voice chat with most other players not speaking english?

[Komarimaru]

Launch will always be higher. I quit playing since Reach feels nothing like I expected plus having weird aiming issues on mouse. Controller I can keep track easily, mouse not so much especially during a fire fight.

I tried to give Reach a shot, but so far it was boring as sin. I'll wait for HaloCE, 2 etc.