Summary
Payday 3’s challenging launch continues unabated, as Steam concurrent player tracking shows thatPayday 2is currently seeing over 10 timesPayday 3’s player total. Initial player totals forPayday 3were encouraging, with a reported 1.3 million players trying the game over its launch weekend. Those numbers have rapidly dropped asPayday 3struggles with serious server and matchmaking issues, as well as PC performance problems. Frustrations have even prompted Starbreeze to issue a recent apology.
The latest release in the popular heist game franchise launched one month ago on September 21. While highly anticipated due to the previousPaydaygames' popularity, there were questions aboutPayday 3even prior to launch. Confirmation thatPayday 3would be an always-online gamewas particularly criticized, but its lengthy development time and shift in developers from Overkill Software to Starbreeze had many fans worried. Unfortunately, those worries appear to have been substantiated.
According to data tracking by SteamDB,Payday 3’s daily concurrent player totals have dropped so low that it’s being significantly overshadowed by its predecessor. The 24-hour peak forPayday 3’s concurrent player totals shows it reached just 3,676 on Steam.Payday 2, over the same period of time, reached 39,182 concurrent players.Payday 2’s numbers are over 10 times those ofPayday 3’s, andPayday 3’s downward trendimplies that it won’t be climbing again anytime soon.
To reiterate, these are numbers taken from Steam and don’t include other platforms.Payday 3is also available on PS5and Xbox Series X/S, as well as via PC Game Pass. It’s entirely possible thatPayday 3is performing better elsewhere. Steam also isn’t an island, however, and could very well be representative ofPayday 3’s overall player numbers.
Starbreeze isn’t going to be able to rebuild a playerbase forPayday 3overnight, and it’s very aware of that. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Starbreeze apologized for the lack of communication in recent weeks. It made clear that it’s listening toPaydayfans' criticism and that it’s working on updates for the new game. In fact, thefirstPayday 3patchis currently being tested and certified.
Depending on how substantial this firstPayday 3patch is, it could certainly bring players back to the game. That’s not a guarantee, though. Regaining players' trust comes first. Then, ifPayday 3is fun and worth playing, players may come back in waves. Clearly, there are still a lot ofPaydayfans out there. They’re just playingPayday 2.
Payday 3is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
