The new, free battle royale shooter Realm Royale is currently gaining popularity on Steam. Players can find here things that Fortnite or PUBG cannot offer. Even famous battle royale players like Ninja are showing interest in the Paladins spin-off.
Realm Royale stands out with classes: At first glance, Realm Royale is a classic battle royale shooter, but it has a special twist. At the beginning of the match, you choose one of five classes: Warrior, Mage, Hunter, Engineer, or Assassin. Throughout the battle, you can loot legendary weapons and skills that originate from the hero shooter Paladins.
The chickens are a particularly popular feature: Unlike other battle royale shooters, you transform into a chicken when your health points drop to zero. As chickens, you move quite quickly, which makes it difficult for your opponents to finish you off. As a chicken, you then have the opportunity to revive and return to the battle as a threat.
More than 100,000 players on Steam in the first week after release
Realm Royale grew and grew: The first release day looked rather modest for Realm Royale. The game reached about 4,600 concurrent players. This was likely due to the parody “Totally Accurate Battlegrounds” celebrating its release on Steam alongside Realm Royale.
However, on the second day, Realm Royale already saw 11,500 concurrent players. That was still less than the debuts of Radical Heights or Darwin Project. On the third day, the breakthrough came: Realm Royale surpassed “Totally Accurate Battlegrounds” and became the hot new battle royale game on Steam with a peak of 27,000 concurrent players.
On the weekend (June 9th to 10th), Realm Royale was the number 4 among the most played games. This rapid growth is comparable to that of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite: Battle Royale. PUBG could face serious competition on Steam from Realm Royale if the growth continues.
Realm Royale received support from famous streamers like Ninja
Famous battle royale players checked out Realm Royale and clearly had fun: Realm Royale received support from some of the biggest Twitch streamers. Ninja, Summit1g, Lirik, and TimTheTatman played Realm Royale live and attracted a large audience. Coincidentally, this happened during a server downtime at Fortnite.
The streamers even hosted official streams from Hi-Rez Studios on their own channels, which led to Realm Royale being part of the number one on Twitch in terms of viewers.
Realm Royale is well received and receives positive reviews on Steam
Realm Royale is still in early access, but it is already gaining positive feedback: On Steam, Realm Royale is currently rated positively by 72% of 6,779 users (as of June 12, 1:40 PM).
On community portals like Reddit, there is also little negative feedback about the class-based battle royale shooter. The mood is generally good in the corresponding subreddit and criticism is mostly constructive.
Reviews from Steam mention that:
- Realm Royale is already a lot of fun in early access
- Realm Royale is suitable for every player, whether casual or strategic
- Hi-Rez responds to feedback and quickly developed a solo player option
- Realm Royale features cool RPG elements
Realm Royale without building like Fortnite, but faster than PUBG
No hectic building like in Fortnite: Realm Royale has a forge like Fortnite, but this is static. You can craft legendary equipment in forges. However, these have fixed spots on the map and are more like objectives that are highly contested.
Plays faster than PUBG: Some players emphasize that they get the dynamic and fast gameplay in Realm Royale that they miss in PUBG.
Elements of MOBAs and hero shooters: Realm Royale originated from Paladins: Battlegrounds. Originally, you could have played the heroes from Paladins, but that was scrapped. Hi-Rez broke it down to five classes, which still gives battle royale a new strategic layer.
PUBG still has a wide lead on Steam
Realm Royale is developing well and could potentially grab a share of the battle royale pie. The game is still in early access and has the potential to find its own niche.
Hi-Rez has also managed to bring one of the few hero shooters to market with Paladins that can compete with Overwatch. They are not the market leaders but have a solid fan base. Similarly, Realm Royale could work as it sets itself apart from other battle royale shooters.
However, PUBG still has a significant lead and reaches peaks of over 1 million concurrent players on Steam (as of June 12). It will be difficult for Realm Royale to reach such numbers. However, it is not unlikely that Hi-Rez can attract a portion of those players.
What do you think of Realm Royale? Can the class-based battle royale shooter become a competitor to Fortnite and PUBG?
