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After a strong debut, Halo Infinite now appears to be struggling to retain players 'on Steam'

Wein Cruz

Wein Cruz

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,772
https://www.businessinsider.com/halo-infinite-struggling-to-retain-players-on-steam-2022-2?amp

That's because, as of January 25, "Halo Infinite" touted a huge new player record: Over 20 million people have played it so far, the company said.

But on Steam, the world's largest video game platform, daily player statistics paint a much less rosy picture of the game's reception.

The game's player numbers average a daily high of 30,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to Steam's public statistics page, and it usually has about half of that. That's a significant drop from where it was at launch, when it ranked as one of the top five most-played games on the platform
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Comparatively, the top five games on Steam average approximately a quarter million to a million players. That puts "Infinite" well out of the top 10 and firmly in the bottom 20% of the top 100 games on the platform nearly two months since launch.
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It's worth noting that "Halo Infinite" isn't exclusive to Steam — the game launched on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and through Microsoft's own Xbox app storefront on PC. As such, the average player count is assuredly higher than what Steam reflects.
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The most-viewed games on Twitch — like "Grand Theft Auto V," "Fortnite," and "Apex Legends" — average over 100,000 viewers. "Halo Infinite" averages fewer than 10,000 viewers, according to Twitch's public data
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I'm curious to see how the player base is by the time the next battle pass/significant content hits.
 
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Mirage

Mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,572
Half its peak doesn't sound too bad? Especially since it hasn't had anything big added yet.

Edit: Misread what it was initially saying but this still doesn't sound too bad to me. It's not just on steam either.
 
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entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,240
I think the title needs Steam stats, because that is very bad assumption to include the flagship platform—Series X/S. PC will always be a different beast.
 
AshenOne

AshenOne

Member
Feb 21, 2018
6,118
Pakistan
They're just using STEAM as a sample size to judge this. Big blunder.

By looking at the most played rankings on xbox.com, it sure seems that Halo is doing fine on consoles, its just on PC with this situation.
 
Clive

Clive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,099
Judging Halo by its Steam performance seems downright stupid. The game is free on PC Game Pass which doesn't count towards Steam statistics and it has also always primarily been an Xbox console franchise.
 
Theorry

Theorry

Member
Oct 27, 2017
61,060
Why not include steam in the title like the article?
Also feel these writers spend to much time on Twitter haha
 
MC_Leon6494

MC_Leon6494

Member
Sep 7, 2018
501
I'm busy! But also it's real light on maps. BtB getting busted for a while and the battle pass progression still feels like a bandaid fix
 

Deleted member 68874

Account closed at user request
Banned
May 10, 2020
10,441
Looking at Steam to determine the playerbase is pretty dumb. The game is still regularly in the top 5 on the most played charts on console, where the Halo fanbase has been built for 20 years.

Once it starts to drop in those charts is when itll be a problem.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
43,655
Live games these days need constant updates and good progression, Halo is still struggling on that
 
OP
OP
Wein Cruz

Wein Cruz

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,772
Thank you mods for the title edit. My bad everyone I don't make threads much.

Might want to put steam instead of stream though lol.
 
tmac456

tmac456

Member
May 27, 2020
1,279
I'm done with it until Forge comes out. The fact BTB has been broken for months is a joke too
 
a Master Ninja

a Master Ninja

Member
Dec 11, 2017
4,841
Like all GAAS, there will be a spike when the next major update hits, and if it's good people will stick around for a while. The game will essentially spend 6 months without major content additions, so I can't blame people moving on for now.
 
ShinobiBk

ShinobiBk

One Winged Slayer
Member
Dec 28, 2017
10,121
Doesn't this game have cross play?
Why do steam numbers really matter that much
 
ClamBuster

ClamBuster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,102
Ipswich, England
games always suffer a couple of months out the gate... it's a time when the playerbase has used up all the early content repeatedly, and it's also when the game is at its smallest

or halo is doomed ???

i'll let others decide... whatever... it's only been around for 20 years and had 20m people play it in a month
 
LightKiosk

LightKiosk

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,479
A lot of MP titles have difficulties retaining their playerbase on Steam, even while being F2P so I wouldn't put that against Halo Infinite. Doesn't help Steam also has a bunch of other lucrative F2P options to go into while people wait on Halo to receive more content/fixes.

I'm personally waiting on them to add the HDR toggle back in that the Flight's had cause the game keeps forcing HDR on my monitor lol.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,547
Ibis Island
Updated the title since this is only on Steam, even with that said...

Looks about what I'd expect, hell it's still in Steam Top 100. Considering it hasn't had any major updates yet and is rather light on content if you are wanting more maps and such. I'd argue it has held pretty well and that's before we factor in cross-play with Xbox which isn't getting counted.

With that said, the game definitely can't rest on its laurels (and I doubt 343 will either). I'm sure all the stuff going on with Battlefield (Which is a title actually having trouble retaining its playerbase) has every GAAS studio making sure they don't lose as much engagement.
 
skullmuffins

skullmuffins

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,426
Jawmuncher said:
Updated the title since this is only on Steam, even with that said...

Looks about what I'd expect, hell it's still in Steam Top 100. Considering it hasn't had any major updates yet and is rather light on content if you are wanting more maps and such. I'd argue it has held pretty well and that's before we factor in cross-play with Xbox which isn't getting counted.

With that said, the game definitely can't rest on its laurels (and I doubt 343 will either). I'm sure all the stuff going on with Battlefield (Which is a title actually having trouble retaining its playerbase) has every GAAS studio making sure they don't lose as much engagement.
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the title says "on stream" not on Steam
 
Ganado

Ganado

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,176
Clive said:
Judging Halo by its Steam performance seems downright stupid. The game is free on PC Game Pass which doesn't count towards Steam statistics and it has also always primarily been an Xbox console franchise.
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The multiplayer is free on Steam too fyi.
 
Prine

Prine

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,724
Steam is a small fraction of its base.

Edit: Stream? Even more of a non story. Lol.
 
VinFTW

VinFTW

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,470
People are so desperate for this game to fail, not even a major content update or patch.... Keep trying games bizz.
 
criteriondog

criteriondog

I like the chili style
Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,175
It needs a lot more content, maps, etc. I can't believe playlists were practically nonexistent when the game released.

My friends and I all dropped it. :/
 
Kalor

Kalor

Resettlement Advisor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,631
Its only natural it'll drop when it's partway through a long season. And obviously there's Xbox as well. There's not much of a story here.
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,163
I really think the gameplay is out of fashion. Shooting at shields, lame double KO melee, scifi setting, nade spam.

Mainstream players prefer military shooters and hero shooters. Then theres games like Siege that fill niches. Halo's gameplay just feels like something 30+ year olds love, but I dont see that enthusiasm passed over to younger generations
 
GhostTrick

GhostTrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,329
To be fair, the game sucks.

Lack of content, game modes and such. I got quickly tired of it.
 
Chettlar

Chettlar

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,604
Yeah like I know the game is free to play on steam, but like I downloaded it on gamepass to play the campaign and haven't felt any need to uninstall and install the steam version. Like, why.

And yeah, lack of content is a big issue. BTB keeps not working even after they said they fixed it. Attrition was awesome though.
 
OP
OP
Wein Cruz

Wein Cruz

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,772
Jawmuncher said:
Updated the title since this is only on Steam, even with that said...

Looks about what I'd expect, hell it's still in Steam Top 100. Considering it hasn't had any major updates yet and is rather light on content if you are wanting more maps and such. I'd argue it has held pretty well and that's before we factor in cross-play with Xbox which isn't getting counted.

With that said, the game definitely can't rest on its laurels (and I doubt 343 will either). I'm sure all the stuff going on with Battlefield (Which is a title actually having trouble retaining its playerbase) has every GAAS studio making sure they don't lose as much engagement.
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One of the priorities has to be fixing server desync I would think.

The server issues are why I hesitate to play anymore.
 
Sarobi

Sarobi

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,982
SecondNature said:
I really think the gameplay is out of fashion. Shooting at shields, lame double KO melee, scifi setting, nade spam.

Mainstream players prefer military shooters and hero shooters. Then theres games like Siege that fill niches. Halo's gameplay just feels like something 30+ year olds love, but I dont see that enthusiasm passed over to younger generations
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There is a reason why Twitch kids meme on it as an "Old man's game", and this is the reason lol.
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

Classic Anus Game
The Fallen
Jul 14, 2018
23,601
The game hasn't had any major content update at all almost 4 months from release. Numbers will come back up eventually (and even then, as said above, the game seems to be much more popular elsewhere anyways)
 
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