‘Highguard’ Lost 80% Of Its Steam Players In 24 Hours

ByPaul Tassi,

Senior Contributor.

Highguard has arrived after its blockbuster debut as the final feature of The Game Awards, casting a spotlight on it that it was never meant to have. Developer Wildlight said that the original plan was a shadow drop, like Apex Legends before it, but the Game Awards press turned its release into much more of an event.

Now, the first figures are in. As a free-to-play game, anyone could hop in and try Highguard, and a number of high-profile streamers made it a top-viewed game on Twitch for a time. Highguard opened with 97,000 concurrent players, a number I do not think it would have reached were it not for all the Game Awards fuss, which was a strong start.

On its second day, however, there was a sharp drop-off in peak concurrent players on Steam, as Highguard didn’t break 20,000 on day 2. It went from 97,000 to 19,000, an 80% drop in just 24 hours. That’s…significant.