The survival hit DayZ has enjoyed good player numbers on Steam for months and has collected numerous positive reviews from players.
Why was DayZ considered broken? DayZ had a bad reputation for years. The low point was reached in August 2018 when player numbers fell to as low as 1,597 simultaneous active players.
In the following December, the full version of the post-apocalyptic survival struggle was released, but the release did not improve the situation of the survival game – the average player numbers of DayZ remained below 10,000 until June 2019 (via SteamCharts).
Moreover, the release month (December 2018) remains the month with the most negative reviews to this day, with nearly 2,000 negative reviews. Players on Steam criticized at that time mainly the technical condition of the game as well as the numerous bugs, stating:
- invisibler7x via Steam: “Despite 1.0 and especially because of the full release yesterday, I must advise everyone against this game.”
- Stesch via Steam: “It’s outrageous what is being sold to us as ‘release’. As others have already stated, DayZ is best measured in bugs per minute!”
- Battlerabbit via Steam: “For me, DayZ has actually been dead for a long time, and I was surprised that there was actually a bigger update.”
What is the current development of DayZ? Both the player numbers and the reviews of DayZ are on a very good path in 2023.
Since November 2022, an average of over 30,000 players played the survival game each month. In January 2023, DayZ even set a new peak player count record with 63,000 simultaneous active players. The old player record of DayZ dates back to April 2022.
Additionally, a strong 87% of nearly 2,892 user reviews in July 2023 are positive (as of July 26, 2023, 2:00 PM). In June, 2,687 positive reviews stood against just 386 negative reviews (via Steam).
What do players like about DayZ now? Recent reviews make it clear: you need to find your own way if you want to have fun in DayZ. The base game without mods and server admins suffers greatly from cheaters.
In contrast, there are community-driven servers where moderators keep the gaming experience free from cheaters and mods and individual server settings enhance the gameplay experience. There are PvE servers that add quests, crafting elements, or dinosaurs to the game, and PvP servers that emphasize military conflicts between players.
Those who dive solo into official servers will likely encounter cheaters, frequently die, and lose progress according to some Steam reviews. This can quickly lead to frustration. Overall, it is up to the players to find a suitable server and a nice community to enjoy playing with.
That not every DayZ player is evil and wants to take you out for your loot was also shown by a player who became a legend in DayZ due to his kindness:
