On May 5, the survival MMO Population Zero launched in Early Access on Steam. Now, at the end of August, the player numbers do not look good. At one point, it actually had 0 players, thus living up to its name.
What kind of game is it? Population Zero is a survival game from the Russian developer Enplex, which aimed to shake up the genre with some cool ideas:
- There are various game modes, including pure PvE or PvP.
- Each mode runs over a specific cycle (usually 7 days) and is then reset.
- Within the cycle, you are supposed to complete tasks and can unlock permanent progress for your account.
- If you die too often, you become the Over-Alien and get one last chance to complete your tasks.
How is the MMO doing today? Already at launch, Population Zero faced issues. Due to the lack of important features like playing in groups or guilds, the first reviews were very negative.
In the weeks following, the developers announced many updates and shared a short-term and a long-term roadmap. But the player numbers look bad today, on August 25, on Steam.
At the time of the article, at 4:00 PM, 0 players were playing Population Zero. In the last 24 hours, there were still 2. Since Population Zero was only released on Steam, this is the complete population of the MMO.
Silence from the developers as well
Does Population Zero have a future? The reviews in the last 30 days paint a very negative picture of the game. Of the 19 reviews, only 31% (6) were positive.
Players still complain that fundamental features such as custom key binding are missing and that the grind is too heavy. Additionally, the low player count is now a significant drawback.
The developers themselves tried to turn things around with some updates. At the end of July, they even announced Twitch Drops to get attention.
This method worked quite well for games like Escape from Tarkov or The Elder Scrolls Online.
However, since this announcement on July 25, there has been silence. Whether Population Zero will receive another update is currently unknown. Whether a new update can save the game is also uncertain.
If you’re looking for a new and good survival MMO instead of Population Zero, you will surely find something in our list of 23 titles.
