Following the game’s launch on May 22nd, the Splitgate 2 player count continues to decline, as its peak concurrent players drop to 2,195 on Steam.
The game’s population is less than 10% of its June peak of over 25,000 players, leaving fans concerned for the future of the arena portal shooter.
Multiple factors potentially play into why players are not only criticising the game, but are leaving it in favour of other titles.
Over on the Steam page, reviews sit at mixed as players criticise the current state of the game. Many players have praised Splitgate 2 for its intuitive portal mechanics and fast-paced gunplay. However, others have criticised the state of Ranked and its battle royale mode.
One of the more prevalent reasons is the series of controversies that followed the game’s showcase at this year’s Summer Game Fest.
1047 Games’ CEO, Ian Proulx, was criticised online for wearing a ‘Make FPS Great Again’ cap. Despite initial pushback from the CEO, he eventually apologised on Reddit for the hat.
The Bundle Dilemma
Other controversies that followed include the in-game store prices, with bundles costing as much as $80 for a collection of gun skins, costumes, portal colours and more. The bundles were eventually cut in half to $40, with the CEO saying that the initial prices were caused as a result of 1047 Games’ former Head of Monetisation being ‘very aggressive on pricing’.
Finally, a Social Media Manager at 1047 Games apologised online for going after a Call of Duty developer using the official Splitgate 2 account, which sparked backlash from members of the community.
An Emphasis on Influencers
The Splitgate 2 player count has been on a downward trend on PC since June 9th, shortly after the game’s console launch. Despite 1047 Games’ best efforts, it hasn’t seen a resurgence since, not even after being promoted by influencers.
According to a LinkedIn report by Nick Lombardi, Co-Founder of Steamforge, 1047 Games allegedly paid around $409,000 (~£315,000) on influencers to play Splitgate 2.
Lombardi stated that the game accumulated over 27m views across all major platforms, including YouTube videos, Twitch streams and TikTok shorts. Sponsored content rate was around 8%, with 2.2m views in total. Over half of those views (1.6m) came from YouTube shorts.
On the competitive gaming front, Splitgate 2 has yet to host an official esports event since its launch. However, it has held several competitions over recent months, including the Splitgate Showdown from June 13th to 23rd, a community event where players signed up to represent a content creator’s team to unlock in-game rewards.
