When a new game comes out, a lot of people play it. This is only natural, especially if there is some hype around the game. The real test comes with player retention though. Sometimes, a game makes waves, only to lose a lot of its players in subsequent weeks.
Which games had the highest player drop-off? Here, we are going to answer just that. Using Steam charting data, we’ve found some games that saw a huge decrease in players. Since this information is tracked via Steam, we will just be talking about games that are on it; some are available elsewhere though.
Just because these games had a steep player drop-off doesn’t mean they are not good! Many of these games are great, but players simply moved on to something else.
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First up, we have InZoi. Before its launch, there was a lot of talk about InZoi, with many believing it would be a replacement for The Sims 4. The realistic graphics and choices were appealing, and with its 2025 launch date, we saw around 87,000 players.
Things didn’t stay like this, though, asthe player base started to declineand continued to do so. Just one month after launch, it seems that the peak was 4,000 players. Now, as of June 2015, there are just 2,000 players in-game as this article is being written.
Next up, we have Black Myth: Wukong. If you were on the internet around the time this game launched, then you may remember the discourse around it. Gamers everywhere were debating onwhether or not it deserved the hype. Regardless of what your stance was, Black Myth: Wukong peaked early with over two million players.
This, of course, is a lot. Just a month later, the game lost around two million players, which is also a lot. Now, Black Myth: Wukong seems to have around 20,000 to 30,000 players on average, with just 16,000 players in-game as we type this (though it is the middle of a weekday, so gamers may just be working).
Ah yes, Palworld. We haven’t heard that name in a while. Palworld is another game that really had a lot of discourse around it. Much of it stems from the similarities to Pokemon, including the designs of the creatures. Interestingly, Palworld didn’t peak at launch, it peaked a few days later. This may be because people (myself included) saw gameplay and wanted to join in.
At its peak, around two million people were playing, but just a month later, this dropped to around 200,000 people. Updates to the game have brought more players, but it’s never surpassed over half a million since those first few weeks.
The First Descendant is a looter shooter that looks graphically impressive. The free-to-play aspect drew in a lot of players, myself included. Shortly after playing though, you begin to realize that the game is riddled with microtransactions.
About a week after launch in July 2024, The First Descendant peaked with around 264,000 players. Now, the game maintains less than 10,000 players on average. If you played at launch, you would have probably seen a lot of other players, butthe crowd has definitely thinned.
It seems that free games tend to have a lot of players at launch, which makes sense. There is no cost, and if you don’t like it, you may just stop. That’s what nearly one million people did for Lost Ark. The official launch of the game saw around 1.3 million players, but a little over a month later, it dropped to around 400,000.
Things improved slightly though, as Lost Ark hit nearly one million players in July 2022. Since then, the player count decreased and has stayed low, with around 20,000 to 30,000 players online on average.
While The Finals didn’t have quite as much of a drop-off compared to other games on our list, it still saw a substantial player decline. At launch, The Finals had around 250,000 players. Fast-forward two months, and the average player count was around 40,000.
Since then, several seasons have happened, but none of them bring the player count over 100,000. Interestingly, we are seeing more players in the past 30 days compared to usual, so maybe a comeback is in the game’s future.
Icarus is a mission-based survival game that never really hit it as big as others in the genre, but it still managed to peak at around 52,000 players when it launched. From there, the player count dwindled to around half in the next few weeks, and around two months later, there were just 10,000 players. As we type, Icarus has 1,000 in-game players.
Icarus uses a real-time mission clock. So, if you are given a week to complete a mission and then have a real-life thing (such as a vacation or a hospital trip), the timer keeps going. Personally, I found this stressful to deal with.
The game has had a few free weekends on Steam, which brings up the player count. The first free weekend saw around 10,000 additional players. When the free weekend ended though, the count went back down.
Last but not least, we have MultiVersus. This game is a bit different from some of the others on our list. Multiversus was available in early access from July 2022 to June 2023, and then saw its official launch in May 2024. Nearly one year later,the game was officially taken offline.
It seems that you’re able to still play the game offline, and as we type this, there are 40 gamers playing MultiVersus right now.
So naturally, this caused the player count to drop. In terms of players, the game peaked in early access with around 150,000 players, but the official launch saw just over 100,000 players. The game remained online for the following year, but the player count dropped to below 10,000 in just one month. Up until MultiVersus was taken offline, there were usually a few hundred people playing.
