Gaming - News
Games That Lost Almost All of Their Playerbase Within Months
By ROBERT EARL WELLS III AND SAM ZELL-BREIER
Realm Royale
After reaching its peak with 105,167 concurrent players in June 2018, “Realm Royale” suffered a 95% decline after two months, with less than 5,000 people playing the game. “Realm Royale” entered a market flooded with other battle royale games trying to capitalize on the popularity of “Fortnite,” but it didn’t do enough to stand apart from the others.
Artifact
Based on “Dota 2,” “Artifact” had a player count of 60,000 before losing 60% of its players after the first week, and six months later, it had plummeted to about 1,500. The game’s monetization system offered no free cards and created a pay-to-win dynamic with players expected to spend more money on card packs.
Apex Legends
While the exact number of players for “Apex Legends” is unknown, the game’s revenue generation fell from $92 million to $24 million after two months. “Apex Legends” was critically acclaimed for introducing new elements to the battle royale genre, but its lack of content on release and minimal hype for its debut saw many players moving on quickly.
Pokémon Go
Considering the franchise's popularity, it’s no surprise that the “Pokémon Go” app, launched in the summer of 2016, attracted many casual players, with only a few having ever played a location-based augmented reality game. Though the game still has 5 million players, the initial novelty wore off, and “Pokémon Go” lost 80% of its users by the end of 2016.
The Division
Ubisoft’s most successful launch, “Tom Clancy’s The Division,” made over $330 million in just five days, but the game-breaking bugs and problems with matchmaking saw its player count fall by 93%. Its gameplay lacked the complexity and variety that fans of RPG shooters have come to expect, and the best aspects of the online portion didn’t always work.
