In the realm of Steam players, Payday 3 has been facing significant challenges. Despite its launch on Game Pass and Steam, the player numbers on Valve’s platform pale in comparison to its predecessor, Payday 2. While it’s important to remember that Steam data doesn’t reveal the whole picture, it does offer insights into the player preferences within the series.
We’ve been discussing Payday 3 quite extensively recently. Earlier this month, we observed that Payday 2 had three times the player count of Payday 3, and subsequently, we noted a 90% drop in Payday 3’s player numbers since its launch, and now the situation has worsened.
There is certainly potential for the co-op FPS game to make a comeback once Starbreeze addresses the numerous issues with the sequel, but players are indicating a preference for returning to Payday 2.
At the moment, Payday 3 has slightly over 2,500 players, while Payday 2 boasts more than 25,000 – a substantial tenfold difference. While this alone could be an outlier, Payday 2 has consistently maintained a player base of 20,000 to 40,000 for some time, and the release of Payday 3 hasn’t caused any noticeable drop in player numbers in the previous game.
The 24-hour peak player counts on Tuesday, October 24 also tell a clear story, with Payday 2 having nearly 40,000 players, while Payday 3 had only 3,500.
Payday 3, as reported by SteamDB and SteamCharts, has been experiencing a gradual and continuous decline. The delivery of Payday 3’s first major patch has been delayed once again, and matchmaking has been far from stable. While Starbreeze has promised more heists for Payday 3 in the future, the turbulent launch has not been doing the game any favors. The negative Steam reviews at Payday 3’s launch certainly didn’t help either.
The server issues in Payday 3 were attributed to a third-party partner of Starbreeze, and the studio has indicated that they are considering a new partner to address these problems. These are just some of the many issues that have plagued the game and caused the initial excitement around its launch to fade. It remains uncertain whether the game will manage to recover its player base.
If you’re still playing the new Starbreeze game and could use some guidance, we’ve compiled a guide to the best Payday 3 weapons and all the Payday 3 vault codes you’ll need to know.