In For Honor, the player base on Steam is disappearing. After three weeks, only a quarter remains.
Ubisoft’s online melee combat game For Honor launched with a bang in mid-February: Even the open beta just days before release achieved record numbers for Ubisoft, and the game had strong player numbers at launch as well. With a player base of nearly 46,000, For Honor was among the top ten most played games on Steam.
However, the current numbers in the Steam charts show that a large portion of the many launch players did not return. Already after two weeks, the number dropped to around 20,000 players, and a week later, it was only about 15,000. Currently, there are only about 11,000 players left, and the trend is still declining.
A look at Google Trends also shows that interest in For Honor has clearly decreased after the launch hype.
What causes this player decline?
The mentioned numbers refer exclusively to Steam, but one can assume that the same trend is also evident on consoles and the Uplay version.
Possible reasons are quickly found: Players have complained about server issues and disconnections since the beginning. The matches occur through the criticized Peer-to-Peer connection; there are no dedicated servers.
Moreover, the combat system in For Honor is more complex than some might have expected. Since E3 2016, interest has increased significantly, and players set high expectations for the game. However, this unique “Art of Battle” may not appeal to everyone’s taste. The long-term motivation has already been discussed in advance.
Note: It is not uncommon for the player counts of online games to plummet shortly after launch. Many curious players take a look right at the start, but only a fraction of them stays long-term. A similar fate befell The Division: This MMO shooter lost 57% of its player base just three weeks after launch.
The “Year 1” plan includes several content deliveries. Perhaps players will return to For Honor more often then.
