That game is the Turtle Rock-developed Evolve.Įvolve is a surprising source for what may be the most egregious case of player drop-off in recent memory. The game in question has seen its player base drop to less than 2,000 players in less than three months from its release. There is also one other positive to be found for the Advanced Warfare team: at least the Call of Duty title has not seen the kind of dramatic drop-off that has plagued one of the most highly anticipated multiplayer games of the decade. The developer can also look at its most recent CoD predecessor for a silver lining: Call of Duty: Ghosts may have outsold Advanced Warfare, but the Infinity Ward title has dropped below even Modern Warfare II's online player base. The title stepped away from some of the stale elements of the series, pushing into a speculative future, and still manages to be a regular factor in Steam's top games by player count. Sledgehammer Games does have some positives to look for, however, as at least Advanced Warfare attempted to make some changes to the Call of Duty formula. Advanced Warfare's PC player base is distressingly similar in size to that of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and nearly half the size of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a game two years its senior. Unfortunately, the game has suffered when compared to fellow Call of Duty titles.
The same cannot be said about the Call of Duty series, where fun, popular multiplayer combat is their bread and butter. Unfortunately for Activision and Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has failed to live up to the franchise's history, even though the game fared positively with critics and topped the bestselling games list of 2014.Īdvanced Warfare has even fared admirably when looked at separately from the Call of Duty series, hitting nearly 10,000 concurrent players on May 3 thanks to a free Steam weekend. faction racing, such a drop in concurrent users is bound to be a disappointment.Īt least, for Ubisoft's sake, both games were not entirely multiplayer-centric, with a wide array of single player features. With The Crew initially sold as the go-to racing MMO, with wide-ranging multiplayer features and faction vs. The title has fared better with retaining players, but again has dropped to the 500 player mark based on current figures. The racing title again topped 12,000 concurrent users upon its December release, but that player base was halved within a fortnight.
Six months later, and the Ubisoft title is lucky to get 500 players.
According to SteamDB, the concurrent user peak dropped to approximately 3,000 players within only two weeks. Assassin's Creed Unity had a tremendous spike of players upon release, with a peak of over 12,000 concurrent users the weekend after the game launched, but that user base dropped away dramatically.
Unfortunately, that success has failed to carry over into any kind of sustained PC player base or longevity. The publisher pushed the title's four player co-operative mode in the run-up to release, and at the very least the game was commercially successful - between Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue, Ubisoft sold 10 million units overall. One of these games was Assassin's Creed Unity, one of the most hyped games of the year. At the end of 2014, the publisher released a pair of extremely high-profile titles, with single player game modes enhanced by the multiplayer experience. One of the publishers who has suffered worst with this trend is Ubisoft. However, not all is as it seems, and a number of high-profile games have instead seen a dramatic drop-off in their PC player base over a very short amount of time. Publishers have looked to give players the choice to play in co-operative missions like BioWare did with Mass Effect 3. Often, these multiplayer modes have been added to give the games in question longevity, or as an attempt to push sales by offering something to a larger market. Even story-driven games like Dragon Age: Inquisition have had additional multiplayer elements. With MOBA titles such as DotA and League of Legends breaking user records and filling stadiums for tournaments, it's no surprise that other games have been given an online multiplayer focus. In modern gaming, many developers believe that multiplayer is king.