The number of people playing Payday 3 on Steam in the month that it’s been out has dwindled to only a 10th of its original launch numbers.
PCGamesN crunched the numbers to see that the player count on PC has dropped by 90 per cent. Its peak player count was 77,938 players on its launch day, September 21, according to data from SteamDB.
Yet, the game has been populated by 8,117 players in the last 24 hours – and this isn’t an isolated incident. Over the weekend of October 14 and October 15, Payday 3 saw a high of 8,444 players.
Prior to this, the last spike was on October 9 with 11,461 players registered in Payday 3, however, that is still less than a fifth of the players who were there at launch.
Interestingly, its predecessor Payday 2 has seen more enviable engagement. The data shows that there were 55,666 players in Payday 2 today at 9am BST (October 16).
Part of this will surely be through the fact that this game has been available for a long time, and that some fans will be saving up to buy Payday 3 once it has been discounted.
Additionally, it’s worth saying that this does not paint a wholly accurate picture of the game’s total player count as Payday 3 is also available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
However, Payday 3‘s “nightmare” launch involving old builds and sporadic server connection is likely to have turned off players who had been waiting ten years for the new game.
In NME‘s three star review of the game, Andy Brown explained that a number of “underwhelming” features in what was meant to be an evolved entry into the series meant that the game didn’t feel finished.
“Payday 3‘s biggest crime is that there’s very little crime, as you can complete every level in four to five hours. Though you’re encouraged to repeat each one to complete challenges, there’s little incentive to do so,” he said, adding that a lot of Payday 3‘s missions feel far too familiar.
In other gaming news, The Van Gogh Museum has shared that the ‘Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat’ Pokémon card will no longer be available at its shop owing to “safety and security” concerns.
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