WindowsCentral: Rocksteady's 'Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League' sinks to an all-time low player base on Steam (118 concurrent players)

[IDontBeatGames]

Source: WindowsCentral

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League just can't catch a break. Even since this live service looter-shooter from Rocksteady Studios launched back in February 2024, it has been bombarded with harsh criticism from fans and critics for repetitive gameplay, heavy amounts of microtransactions, and disappointing story-telling and characterization.

To compound the game's poor critical reception, SteamDB has shown that the concurrent player base for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has sunk to an all-time low of 118 players.

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To get an idea of what Suicide Squad's future might look like, you could consider Marvel's Avengers by Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics. Marvel's Avengers had similar problems to that of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League to some degree, yet has proved vastly more successful, reaching a peak record of 31,165 concurrent players in 2020 according to SteamDB. Despite that, it was still shut down by Crystal Dynamics in 2023 after being deemed a commercial failure.

By comparison, Suicide Squad's current peak record number of concurrent players was 13,459 in February 2024 and has plummeted much faster than Marvel's Avengers playbase. In short: these numbers paint a short and grim future for this game's lifespan. Perhaps most damning at all: despite being officially dead, Marvel's Avengers currently has more concurrent players than Suicide Squad as of writing, albeit a couple of dozen players here or there.

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[Turnscr3w]

That's less than the offline client for Multiversus, lol

 

[keyrodi]

Can't wait to the see the defense plays on this update

After reading about the failure that is Season 1, I truly do not believe this game has legs. Will likely be shuttered by this time next year.

 

[Cudpug]

God it launched in February? For whatever reason it feels like this has been out for ages.

 

[Greywaren]

This honestly makes me sad. I know nobody really wanted this game, but it must be devastating for the devs.

 

[SkimpyMcChicken]

Both of those numbers are insane. I guess I can't really say anything because I didn't buy either game, but the Avengers and the Suicide Squad are two very popular IP these days. PC / PS5 / Xbox have a huge combined market, and only 150 people are legitimately enjoying it.

They should use the art assets for something else tbh. I know that's not how games are generally made, but they gotta find a way to make them cheaper to make.

Imagine if a Garry's Mod / Thingiverse-esque platform for commercial game dev really took off, and all the textures and 3D models made for this game could find life in something with a better hook

 

[Anth0ny]

I saw that it was lower than Marvel's Avengers, a literal dead game, after only 3 months of release... but wasn't gonna make a thread about it lol.

They need to just announce the game is not getting any more major updates and move the fuck on. No need to drag it out. Officially one of the biggest bombs I can remember in gaming history. Get Rocksteady on a new Batman game and lets pretend this never happened.

 

[RochHoch]

Oof

I wonder how many seasons they'll actually bother releasing. Not much of a point in making them when almost nobody is actually playing the thing, commitments be damned

 

[IDontBeatGames]

Can't wait to the see the defense plays on this update

After reading about the failure that is Season 1, I truly do not believe this game has legs. Will likely be shuttered by this time next year.

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If an update starring the most important villain in DC history couldn't revitalize interest in this game, yeah, it's over. It's dead.

 

[Wesker]

Come on, half of those probably left the game open by accident.

 

[Nickerbocker98]

We got too cocky, Squadians

 

[Mocha Joe]

Come on, half of those probably left the game open by accident.

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prankster grandmas and uncles inflating Suicide Squad CCUs, when is Steam gunna step in and stop them??

 

[Witness]

No idea how Rocksteady/WB couldn't see this, a game no one asked for as the follow up to Arkham Knight has failed miserably. Shocking.

 

[zolee]

holy fuck, there is a chance that more people are working on this game than are playing on Steam

 

[strudelkuchen]

Batman: Arkham Origins also has more players, but I omitted it since it was a different studio.

 

[DontHateTheBacon]

What a bummer. I am always holding my breath when I see a headline about this game and Rocksteady, bracing for layoff impact.

 

[Ambient]

I don't think this could have bombed any harder. Morale at the studio must be rock bottom. Having to support this game for at least a year and probably not having your next project out until 2030.

 

[B.O.O.M.]

Honestly feel like this is a bit mean and I'm unsure why I feel that. Perhaps I just feel bad for the devs. What a fall it has been for Rocksteady tho I'm sure they will bounce back strong

 

[Arc]

This is what happens when people who don't understand a market make investment decisions about said market.

 

[canderous]

These unending articles dunking on Steam player numbers are such a stupid trend. Giving anyone with a pulse access to this information was a mistake lol.

 

[Griffins22]

I almost bought this cause it was 50 percent off on the PlayStation Store but I feel like it'll be cheaper soon.

 

[Rellodex]

Both of those numbers are insane. I guess I can't really say anything because I didn't buy either game, but the Avengers and the Suicide Squad are two very popular IP these days. PC / PS5 / Xbox have a huge combined market, and only 150 people are legitimately enjoying it

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This is for the PC version, and these type of games don't seem to be too popular on PC.

But I am similarly shocked, where a game by a well reputed developer and based on an extremely popular property just kind of blows over.

 

[Mocha Joe]

holy fuck, there is a chance that more people are working on this game than are playing on Steam

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When you put it like that holy shit that's grim

 

[PJTierney]

Oof

I wonder how many seasons they'll actually bother releasing. Not much of a point in making them when almost nobody is actually playing the thing, commitments be damned

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Normally in a scenario like this if content was sold via a Deluxe/Ultimate edition, there's a legal obligation to create and release that content (otherwise things get messy with partial refunds and potential lawsuits from customers), but once that's out a game is effectively dead.

Project CARS 3 is an example, it got its 4 DLC packs (over the course of a year) that were sold with pre-orders and I don't think it ever got patched after that.

 

[Kewlmyc]

Has anything under the Suicide Squad brand been a financial AND critical success at this point besides the James Gunn movie? Franchise feels cursed.

 

[Chumunga64]

This is one of the games where you can pinpoint the exact time the budget/creativity ran out

the first couple hours with Green lantern are actually pretty interesting with a bunch of cool bits but after that, it's generic. even the batman predator segment with you being on the other side for once felt half-assed

 

[OtakuCoder]

Batman: Arkham Origins also has more players, but I omitted it since it was a different studio.

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Shoutouts to that one player who keeps forgetting to buy the Arkham City GotY edition every sale

 

[supercommodore]

The article seems unnecessary and serves no purpose besides dunking on a game that's already dead and buried.

People at WC got nothing better to do with their time or something.

 

[cowbanana]

Wrap it up. It's dead.

 

[SirKai]

At the risk of this being thread whining, can we stop reposting player count dooming from rags like Windowscentral? Game is meh, it majorly underperformed, WB has already said as much. I don't see what this adds.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Keep those loot-based RPG-lite GaaS titles coming, publishers! Don't stop now, they're red hot!

 

[Tagyhag]

It's just sad. I feel for the devs. You gotta do what the higher ups tell you to do.

holy fuck, there is a chance that more people are working on this game than are playing on Steam

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Part of me thinks that most of them shifted already but you could be right and that is insane to think about.

 

[Reckheim]

This honestly makes me sad. I know nobody really wanted this game, but it must be devastating for the devs.

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yeh, i'll never get how people can glee over something like this.

its something 100's of people worked on for like 5 years. I get it, the company they work for is trash; but the employees must feel pretty bad.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

The studio is probably deader than dead and it's all the fault of the dumb executives.

 

[Paquete_PT]

This was honestly worse than I expected, by a lot. It's unfortunate for Rocksteady, to go from Arkham to this, the writting was on the wall since the first showing. I played the beta and stopped after 30min.

 

[Abrasion Test]

The article seems unnecessary and serves no purpose besides dunking on a game that's already dead and buried.

People at WC got nothing better to do with their time or something.

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These player count drop posts have always been easy engagement/clicks unfortunately, even Palworld and other successful games that are not intended to be played forever are getting these headlines. One downside of Steam having publicly available stats is the fixation on them.

 

[Agni Kai]

Batman: Arkham Origins also has more players, but I omitted it since it was a different studio.

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I'm pretty sure those peaks for Asylum and City are from when they were released in some Humblebundle. I remember it was an insane deal lol.

 

[PJTierney]

These unending articles dunking on Steam player numbers are such a stupid trend. Giving anyone with a pulse access to this information was a mistake lol.

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Also, concurrents don't tell the full story. Normally the Daily Active Users (a metric used internally) is much higher, but because people play at different times of day the CCU will be lower. DAU and MAU are generally a better sign of a game's health than CCU.

I'm surprised Steam or SteamDB don't track DAUs, since essentially it would be a check of all unique accounts tracked as playing the game within the past 24 hours.

 

[Keziaka6591]

Hope the devs who worked on this are able to keep their heads up. I feel like my mental health would be affected if a project I worked my ass off on has been dunked consistently before it even released.

 

[NosgothNihilist]

Looks like it's time to jump in.

 

[Kudo]

I feel sorry for the devs that got roped into making this game. At least they had time to prepare since anyone could see nobody wanted this game.

 

[zaxil456]

These unending articles dunking on Steam player numbers are such a stupid trend. Giving anyone with a pulse access to this information was a mistake lol.

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Yeah like I get Era is made for stuff like this but it really gets tiring and is putting me off gaming discussions.

 

[shadowman16]

This is for the PC version, and these type of games don't seem to be too popular on PC.

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Im not sure what you mean by that. Action games, DC games (good ones at least) and co op based action games all do well on Steam IF the game is good.

I remember some suggesting that people would return for when the season and "GAAS" elements are implemented in the game. Well they aint. And I really have doubts that there's really many more people playing this on consoles.
At this rate I have doubts this'll even last long enough to complete the rumored plot which apparently would

Spoiler

bring the JLA back

 

[Kemal86]

Normally in a scenario like this if content was sold via a Deluxe/Ultimate edition, there's a legal obligation to create and release that content (otherwise things get messy with partial refunds and potential lawsuits from customers), but once that's out a game is effectively dead.

Project CARS 3 is an example, it got its 4 DLC packs (over the course of a year) that were sold with pre-orders and I don't think it ever got patched after that.

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and we're still waiting on any of the DLC they sold for Redfall lol

 

[KDC720]

I really hope Rocksteady survives this. I'm fairly certain they do have content obligations they need to fulfill for folks who bought the ultimate editions or whatever, so they'll likely have a skeleton crew working on it for a bit, but I can easily see them being shuttered when that's all done and it sucks.

 

[strudelkuchen]

People at WC got nothing better to do with their time or something.

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If you need to hit some article/day quota this stuff is easy...

 

[Lashley]

What a waste of a once great studio.

 

[Rolodzeo]

This has to be one of the biggest bombs ever in videogame history.

 

[nihilence]

Maybe consoles are carrying it.

 

[OtakuCoder]

Normally in a scenario like this if content was sold via a Deluxe/Ultimate edition, there's a legal obligation to create and release that content (otherwise things get messy with partial refunds and potential lawsuits from customers), but once that's out a game is effectively dead.

Project CARS 3 is an example, it got its 4 DLC packs (over the course of a year) that were sold with pre-orders and I don't think it ever got patched after that.

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I had a look at the Digital Deluxe for KtJL on Steam and it mentions that the Battle Pass Token (... yeah, you get one. In the pricey edition of an already full-priced game.) is eligible for Seasons 1-4. So I'm assuming they're on the hook for three more at the very least.